YANKEE   IN   CANADA, 


WITH 


ANTI-SLAVERY   AND    REFORM 
PAPERS. 


HENRY    D.    THOREAU, 

AUTHOR    OF    "A    WEEK    ON    THE    CONCORD    AND    MERRIMACK    RIVERS,' 
"WALDEN,"    "CAPE    COD,"    ETC.,    ETC. 


BOSTON : 

TICKNOR     AND     FIELDS 
1866. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1866,  by 

TICK  NOR     AND     FIELDS, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


UNIVERSITY  PRESS:  WELCH,  BIGELOW,  &  Co., 
CAMBRIDGE. 


F 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA 1 

CHAP.  I.     CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL  ....  3 
II.     QUEBEC  AND  MONTMORENCI         .        .         .18 

HI.    ST.  ANNE 37 

IV.     THE  WALLS  or  QUEBEC      ....  64 
V.     THE  SCENERY  OF  QUEBEC  ;  AND  THE  RIVER 

ST.  LAWRENCE 78 

ANTI-SLAVERY  AND   REFORM  PAPERS  95 

SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS 97 

PRAYERS 117 

CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE 123 

A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN        .        .        .  152 

PARADISE  (TO  BE)  REGAINED 182 

HERALD  OP  FREEDOM 206 

THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS      .         .         .        .211 

LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE 248 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS  BEFORE  THE  CONCORD  LYCEUM  .  274 

THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN   .  278 


A   YANKEE    IN    CANADA. 


"  New  England  is  by  some  affirmed  to  be  an  island,  bounded  on  the  north 
with  the  River  Canada  (so  called  from  Monsieur  Cane)."  —  JOSSELYN'S  RARE- 
TIES. 

And  still  older,  in  Thomas  Morton's  "  New  English  Canaan,"  published  in 
1632,  it  is  said,  on  page  97,  "From  this  Lake  [Erocoise]  Northwards  is  derived 
the  famous  River  of  Canada,  so  named,  of  Monsier  de  Cane,  a  French  Lord, 
who  first  planted  a  Colony  of  French  in  America." 


CHAPTER    I. 

CONCORD     TO     MONTREAL. 

I  FEAR  that  I  have  not  got  much  to  say  about  Canada, 
not  having  seen  much ;  what  I  got  by  going  to  Canada 
was  a  cold.  I  left  Concord,  Massachusetts,  Wednesday 
morning,  September  25th,  1850,  for  Quebec.  Fare,  seven 
dollars  there  and  back ;  distance  from  Boston,  five  hun 
dred  and  ten  miles  ;  being  obliged  to  leave  Montreal  on 
the  return  as  soon  as  Friday,  October  4th,  or  within 
ten  days.  I  will  not  stop  to  tell  the  reader  the  names 
of  my  fellow-travellers ;  there  were  said  to  be  fifteen 
hundred  of  them.  I  wished  only  to  be  set  down  in 
Canada,  and  take  one  honest  walk  there  as  I  might  in 
Concord  woods  of  an  afternoon. 

The  country  was  new  to  me  beyond  Fitchburg.  In 
Ashburnham  and  afterward,  as  we  were  whirled  rapidly 
along,  I  noticed  the  woodbine  (Ampelopsis  quinquefblia), 
its  leaves  now  changed,  for  the  most  part  on  dead  trees, 
draping  them  like  a  red  scarf.  It  was  a  little  exciting, 
suggesting  bloodshed,  or  at  least  a  military  life,  like  an 
epaulet  or  sash,  as  if  it  were  dyed  with  the  blood  of  the 
trees  whose  wounds  it  was  inadequate  to  stanch.  For 
now  the  bloody  autumn  was  come,  and  an  Indian  war 
fare  was  waged  through  the  forest.  These  military  trees 
appeared  very  numerous,  for  our  rapid  progress  connect 
ed  those  that  were  even  some  miles  apart.  Does  the 
woodbine  prefer  the  elm  ?  The  first  view  of  Monadnoc 
was  obtained  five  or  six  miles  this  side  of  Fitzwilliam, 


4  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

but  nearest  and  best  at  Troy  and  beyond.  Then  there 
were  the  Troy  cuts  and  embankments.  Keene  Street 
strikes  the  traveller  favorably,  it  is  so  wide,  level, 
straight,  and  long.  I  have  heard  one  of  my  relatives, 
who  was  born  and  bred  there,  say  that  you  could  see  a 
chicken  run  across  it  a  mile  off.  I  have  also  been  told 
that  when  this  town  was  settled  they  laid  out  a  street 
four  rods  wide,  but  at  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the 
proprietors  one  rose  and  remarked,  "We  have  plenty 
of  land,  why  not  make  the  street  eight  rods  wide  ? " 
and  so  they  voted  that  it  should  be  eight  rods  wide,  and 
the  town  is  known  far  and  near  for  its  handsome  street. 
It  was  a  cheap  way  of  securing  comfort,  as  well  as  fame, 
and  I  wish  that  all  new  towns  would  take  pattern  from 
this.  It  is  best  to  lay  our  plans  widely  in  youth,  for 
then  land  is  cheap,  and  it  is  but  too  easy  to  contract  our 
views  afterward.  Youths  so  laid  out,  with  broad  ave 
nues  and  parks,  that  they  may  make  handsome  and  lib 
eral  old  men!  Show  me  a  youth  whose  mind  is  like 
some  Washington  city  of  magnificent  distances,  prepared 
for  the  most  remotely  successful  and  glorious  life  after 
all,  when  those  spaces  shall  be  built  over  and  the  idea  of 
the  founder  be  realized.  I  trust  that  every  New  Eng 
land  boy  will  begin  by  laying  out  a  Keene  Street  through 
his  head,  eight  rods  wide.  I  know  one  such  Washing 
ton  city  of  a  man,  whose  lots  as  yet  are  only  surveyed 
and  staked  out,  and  except  a  cluster  of  shanties  here  and 
there,  only  the  Capitol  stands  there  for  all  structures,  and 
any  day  you  may  see  from  afar  his  princely  idea  borne 
coachwise  along  the  spacious  but  yet  empty  avenues. 
Keene  is  built  on  a  remarkably  large  and  level  interval, 
like  the  bed  of  a  lake,  and  the  surrounding  hills,  which 
are  remote  from  its  street,  must  afford  some  good  walks. 


I 


CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL.  5 

The  scenery  of  mountain  towns  is  commonly  too  much 
crowded.  A  town  which  is  built  on  a  plain  of  some 
extent,  with  an  open  horizon,  and  surrounded  by  hills 
at  a  distance,  affords  the  best  walks  and  views. 

As  we  travel  northwest  up  the  country,  sugar-maples, 
beeches,  birches,  hemlocks,  spruce,  butternuts,  and  ash 
trees  prevail  more  and  more.  To  the  rapid  traveller 
the  number  of  elms  in  a  town  is  the  measure  of  its 
civility.  One  man  in  the  cars  has  a  bottle  full  of  some 
liquor.  The  whole  company  smile  whenever  it  is  ex 
hibited.  .  I  find  no  difficulty  in  containing  myself.  The 
Westmoreland  country  looked  attractive.  I  heard  a 
passenger  giving  the  very  obvious  derivation  of  this 
name,  West-more-land,  as  if  it  were  purely  American, 
and  he  had  made  a  discovery ;  but  I  thought  of  "  my 
cousin  Westmoreland "  in  England.  Every  one  will 
remember  the  approach  to  Bellows  Falls,  under  a  high 
cliff  which  rises  from  the  Connecticut.  I  was  disap 
pointed  in  the  size  of  the  river  here  ;  it  appeared  shrunk 
to  a  mere  mountain  stream.  The  water  was  evidently 
very  low.  The  rivers  which  we  had  crossed  this  fore 
noon  possessed  more  of  the  character  of  mountain 
streams  than  those  in  the  vicinity  of  Concord,  and  I 
was  surprised  to  see  everywhere  traces  of  recent  fresh 
ets,  which  had  carried  away  bridges  and  injured  the  rail 
road,  though  I  had  heard  nothing  of  it.  In  Ludlow, 
Mount  Holly,  and  beyond,  there  is  interesting  moun 
tain  scenery,  not  rugged  and  stupendous,  but  such  as 
you  could  easily  ramble  over,  —  long  narrow  mountain 
vales  through  which  to  see  the  horizon.  You  are  in 
the  midst  of  the  Green  Mountains.  A  few  more  ele 
vated  blue  peaks  are  seen  from  the  neighborhood  of 
Mount  Holly,  perhaps  Killington  Peak  is  one.  Some- 


6  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

times,  as  on  the  Western  Railroad,  you  are  whirled  over 
mountainous  embankments,  from  which  the  scared  horses 
in  the  valleys  appear  diminished  to  hounds.  All  the 
hills  blush ;  I  think  that  autumn  must  be  the  best  season 
to  journey  over  even  the  Green  Mountains.  You  fre 
quently  exclaim  to  yourself,  what  red  maples  !  The 
sugar-maple  is  not  so  red.  You  see  some  of  the  latter 
with  rosy  spots  or  cheeks  only,  blushing  on  one  side 
like  fruit,  while  all  the  rest  of  the  tree  is  green,  proving 
either  some  partiality  in  the  light  or  frosts,  or  some 
prematurity  in  particular  branches.  Tall  and  slender 
ash-trees,  whose  foliage  is  turned  to  a  dark  mulberry 
color,  are  frequent.  The  butternut,  which  is  a  remark 
ably  spreading  tree,  is  turned  completely  yellow,  thus 
proving  its  relation  to  the  hickories.  I  was  also  struck 
by  the  bright  yellow  tints  of  the  yellow-birch.  The 
sugar-maple  is  remarkable  for  its  clean  ankle.  The 
groves  of  these  trees  looked  like  vast  forest  sheds, 
their  branches  stopping  short  at  a  uniform  height,  four 
or  five  feet  from  the  ground,  like  eaves,  as  if  they  had 
been  trimmed  by  art,  so  that  you  could  look  under  and 
through  the  whole  grove  with  its  leafy  canopy,  as  under 
a  tent  whose  curtain  is  raised. 

As  you  approach  Lake  Champlain  you  begin  to  see 
the  New  York  mountains.  The  first  view  of  the  Lake 
at  Vergennes  is  impressive,  but  rather  from  association 
than  from  any  peculiarity  in  the  scenery.  It  lies  there 
so  small  (not  appearing  in  that  proportion  to  the  width 
of  the  State  that  it  does  on  the  map),  but  beautifully 
quiet,  like  a  picture  of  the  Lake  of  Lucerne  on  a  music- 
box,  where  you  trace  the  name  of  Lucerne  among  the 
foliage ;  far  more  ideal  than  ever  it  looked  on  the  map. 
It  does  not  say,  "  Here  I  am,  Lake  Champlain,"  as  the 


CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL.  7 

conductor  might  for  it,  but  having  studied  the  geography 
thirty  years,  you  crossed  over  a  hill  one  afternoon  and 
beheld  it.  But  it  is  only  a  glimpse  that  you  get  here. 
At  Burlington  you  rush  to  a  wharf  and  go  on  board  a 
steamboat,  two  hundred  and  thirty-two  miles  from  Bos 
ton.  We  left  Concord  at  twenty  minutes  before  eight 
in  the  morning,  and  were  in  Burlington  about  six  at 
night,  but  too  late  to  see  the  lake.  We  got  our  first 
fair  view  of  the  lake  at  dawn,  just  before  reaching 
Plattsburg,  and  saw  blue  ranges  of  mountains  on  either 
hand,  in  New  York  and  in  Vermont,  the  former  espe 
cially  grand.  A  few  white  schooners,  like  gulls,  were 
seen  in  the  distance,  for  it  is  not  waste  and  solitary  like, 
a  lake  in  Tartary ;  but  it  was  such  a  view  as  leaves  not 
much  to  be  said ;  indeed,  I  have  postponed  Lake  Cham- 
plain  to  another  day. 

The  oldest  reference  to  these  waters  that  I  have  yet 
seen  is  in  the  account  of  Cartier's  discovery  and  explo 
ration  of  the  St.  Lawrence  in  1535.  Samuel  Cham- 
plain  actually  discovered  and  paddled  up  the  Lake  in 
July,  1609,  eleven  years  before  the  settlement  of  Plym 
outh,  accompanying  a  war-party  of  the  Canadian  Indians 
against  the  Iroquois.  He  describes  the  islands  in  it  as 
not  inhabited,  although  they  are  pleasant,  —  on  account 
of  the  continual  wars  of  the  Indians,  in  consequence  of 
which  they  withdraw  from  the  rivers  and  lakes  into  the 
depths  of  the  land,  that  they  may  not  be  surprised. 
"  Continuing  our  course,"  says  he,  "  in  this  lake,  on 
the  western  side,  viewing  the  country,  I  saw  on  the 
eastern  side  very  high  mountains,  where  there  was 
snow  on  the  summit.  I  inquired  of  the  savages  if 
those  places  were  inhabited.  They  replied  that  they 
were,  and  that  they  were  Iroquois,  and  that  in  those 


8  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

places  there  were  beautiful  valleys  and  plains  fertile 
in  corn,  such  as  I  have  eaten  in  this  country,  with  an 
infinity  of  other  fruits."  This  is  the  earliest  account  of 
what  is  now  Vermont. 

The  number  of  French  Canadian  gentlemen  and 
ladies  among  the  passengers,  and  the  sound  of  the 
French  language,  advertised  us  by  this  time  that  we 
were  being  whirled  towards  some  foreign  vortex.  And 
now  we  have  left  Rouse's  Point,  and  entered  the  Sorel 
River,  and  passed  the  invisible  barrier  between  the 
States  and  Canada.  The  shores  of  the  Sorel,  Riche 
lieu,  or  St.  John's  River,  are  flat  and  reedy,  where  I 
had  expected  something  more  rough  and  mountainous 
for  a  natural  boundary  between  two  nations.  Yet  I 
saw  a  difference  at  once,  in  the  few  huts,  in  the  pirogues 
on  the  shore,  and  as  it  were,  in  the  shore  itself.  This 
was  an  interesting  scenery  to  me,  and  the  very  reeds  or 
rushes  in  the  shallow  water,  and  the  tree-tops  in  the 
swamps,  have  left  a  pleasing  impression.  We  had  still 
a  distant  view  behind  us  of  two  or  three  blue  mountains 
in  Vermont  and  New  York.  About  nine  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon  we  reached  St.  John's,  an  old  frontier  post 
three  hundred  and  six  miles  from  Boston  and  twenty- 
four  from  Montreal.  "VVe  now  discovered  that  we  were 
in  a  foreign  country,  in  a  station-house  of  another 
nation.  This  building  was  a  barn-like  structure,  look 
ing  as  if  it  were  the  work  of  the  villagers  combined,  like 
a  log-house  in  a  new  settlement.  My  attention  was 
caught  by  the  double  advertisements  in  French  and 
English  fastened  to  its  posts,  by  the  formality  of  the 
English,  and  the  covert  or  open  reference  to  their  queen 
and  the  British  lion.  No  gentlemanly  conductor  ap 
peared,  none  whom  you  would  know  to  be  the  conduc- 


CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL.  9 

tor  by  his  dress  and  demeanor ;  but  erelong  we  began 
to  see  here  and  there  a  solid,  red-faced,  burly-looking 
Englishman,  a  little  pursy  perhaps,  who  made  us 
ashamed  of  ourselves  and  our  thin  and  nervous  coun 
trymen, —  a  grandfatherly  personage,  at  home  in  his 
great-coat,  who  looked  as  if  he  might  be  a  stage  pro 
prietor,  certainly  a  railroad  director,  and  knew,  or  had 
a  right  to  know,  when  the  cars  did  start.  Then  there 
were  two  or  three  pale-faced,  black-eyed,  loquacious 
Canadian  French  gentlemen  there,  shrugging  their 
shoulders ;  pitted  as  if  they  had  all  had  the  small-pox. 
In  the  mean  while  some  soldiers,  red-coats,  belonging 
to  the  barracks  near  by,  were  turned  out  to  be  drilled. 
At  every  important  point  in  our  route  the  soldiers 
showed  themselves  ready  for  us ;  though  they  were 
evidently  rather  raw  recruits  here,  they  manoauvred 
far  better  than  our  soldiers ;  yet,  as  usual,  I  heard  some 
Yankees  talk  as  if  they  were  no  great  shakes,  and 
they  had  seen  the  Acton  Blues  manoeuvre  as  well. 
The  officers  spoke  sharply  to  them,  and  appeared  to 
be  doing  their  part  thoroughly.  I  heard  one  suddenly 
coming  to  the  rear,  exclaim,  "  Michael  Donouy,  take  his 
name ! "  though  I  could  not  see  what  the  latter  did  or 
omitted  to  do.  It  was  whispered  that  Michael  Donouy 
would  have  to  suffer  for  that.  I  heard  some  of  our 
party  discussing  the  possibility  of  their  driving  these 
troops  off  the  field  with  their  umbrellas.  I  thought 
that  the  Yankee,  though  undisciplined,  had  this  advan 
tage  at  least,  that  he  especially  is  a  man  who,  everywhere 
and  under  all  circumstances,  is  fully  resolved  to  better 
his  condition  essentially,  and  therefore  he  could  afford 
to  be  beaten  at  first ;  while  the  virtue  of  the  Irishman, 
and  to  a  great  extent  the  Englishman,  consists  in  merely 


10  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

maintaining  his  ground  or  condition.  The  Canadians 
here,  a  rather  poor-looking  race,  clad  in  gray  homespun, 
which  gave  them,  the  appearance  of  being  covered  with 
dust,  were  riding  about  in  caleches  and  small  one-horse 
carts  called  charettes.  The  Yankees  assumed  that  all 
the  riders  were  racing,  or  at  least  exhibiting  the  paces 
of  their  horses,  and  saluted  them  accordingly.  We  saw 
but  little  of  the  village  here,  for  nobody  could  tell  us 
when  the  cars  would  start;  that  was  kept  a  profound 
secret,  perhaps  for  political  reasons ;  and  therefore  we 
were  tied  to  our  seats.  The  inhabitants  of  St.  John's 
and  vicinity  are  described  by  an  English  traveller  as 
"  singularly  unprepossessing,"  and  before  completing  his 
period  he  adds,  "  besides,  they  are  generally  very  much 
disaffected  to  the  British  crown."  I  suspect  that  that 
"  besides  "  should  have  been  a  because. 

At  length,  about  noon,  the  cars  began  to  roll  towards 
La  Prairie.  The  whole  distance  of  fifteen  miles  was 
over  a  remarkably  level  country,  resembling  a  Western 
prairie,  with  the  mountains  about  Chambly  visible  in 
the  northeast.  This  novel,  but  monotonous  scenery,  was 
exciting.  At  La  Prairie  we  first  took  notice  of  the 
tinned  roofs,  but  above  all  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  which 
looked  like  a  lake ;  in  fact  it  is  considerably  expanded 
here ;  it  was  nine  miles  across  diagonally  to  Montreal. 
Mount  Eoyal  in  the  rear  of  the  city,  and  the  island  of 
St.  Helen's  opposite  to  it,  were  now  conspicuous.  We 
could  also  see  the  Sault  St.  Louis  about  five  miles  up 
the  river,  and  the  Sault  Norman  still  farther  eastward. 
The  former  are  described  as  the  most  considerable 
rapids  in  the  St.  Lawrence ;  but  we  could  see  merely 
a  gleam  of  light  there  as  from  a  cobweb  in  the  sun. 
Soon  the  city  of  Montreal  was  discovered  with  its  tin 


CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL.          11 

roofs  shining  afar.  Their  reflections  fell  on  the  eye  like 
a  clash  of  cymbals  on  the  ear.  Above  all  the  church  of 
Notre  Dame  was  conspicuous,  and  anon  the  Bonsecours 
market-house,  occupying  a  commanding  position  on  the 
quay,  in  the  rear  of  the  shipping.  This  city  makes  the 
more  favorable  impression  from  being  approached  by 
water,  and  also  being  built  of  stone,  a  gray  limestone 
found  on  the  island.  Here,  after  travelling  directly 
inland  the  whole  breadth  of  New  England,  we  had 
struck  upon  a  city's  harbor,  —  it  made  on  me  the 
impression  of  a  seaport,  —  to  which  ships  of  six  hundred 
tons  can  ascend,  and  where  vessels  drawing  fifteen  feet 
lie  close  to  the  wharf,  five  hundred  and  forty  miles  from 
the  Gulf;  the  St.  Lawrence  being  here  two  miles  wide. 
There  was  a  great  crowd  assembled  on  the  ferry-boat 
wharf  and  on  the  quay  to  receive  the  Yankees,  and 
flags  of  all  colors  were  streaming  from  the  vessels  to 
celebrate  their  arrival.  When  the  gun  was  fired,  the 
gentry  hurrahed  again  and  again,  and  then  the  Cana 
dian  caleche-drivers,  who  were  most  interested  in  the 
matter,  and  who,  I  perceived,  were  separated  from  the 
former  by  a  fence,  hurrahed  their  welcome ;  first  the 
broadcloth,  then  the  homespun. 

It  was  early  in  the  afternoon  when  we  stepped  ashore. 
With  a  single  companion,  I  soon  found  my  way  to  the 
church  of  Notre  Dame.  I  saw  that  it  was  of  great  size 
and  signified  something.  It  is  said  to  be  the  largest 
ecclesiastical  structure  in  North  America,  and  can  seat 
ten  thousand.  It  is  two  hundred  and  fifty-five  and  a 
half  feet  long,  and  the  groined  ceiling  is  eighty  feet 
above  your  head.  The  Catholic  are  the  only  churches 
which  I  have  seen  worth  remembering,  which  are  not 
almost  wholly  profane.  I  do  not  speak  only  of  the  rich 


12  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

and  splendid  like  this,  but  of  the  humblest  of  them  as 
well.  Coming  from  the  hurrahing  mob  and  the  rattling 
carriages,  we  pushed  aside  the  listed  door  of  this  church, 
and  found  ourselves  instantly  in  an  atmosphere  which 
might  be  sacred  to  thought  and  religion,  if  one  had  any. 
There  sat  one  or  two  women  who  had  stolen  a  moment 
from  the  concerns  of  the  day,  as  they  were  passing ;  but, 
if  there  had  been  fifty  people  there,  it  would  still  have 
been  the  most  solitary  place  imaginable.  They  did  not 
look  up  at  us,  nor  did  one  regard  another.  We  walked 
softly  down  the  broad-aisle  with  our  hats  in  our  hands. 
Presently  came  in  a  troop  of  Canadians,  in  their  home 
spun,  who  had  come  to  the  city  in  the  boat  with  us,  and 
one  and  all  kneeled  down  in  the  aisle  before  the  high 
altar  to  their  devotions,  somewhat  awkwardly,  as  cattle 
prepare  to  lie  down,  and  there  we  left  them.  As  if  you 
were  to  catch  some  farmer's  sons  from  Marlboro,  come 
to  cattle-show,  silently  kneeling  in  Concord  meeting 
house  some  Wednesday !  Would  there  not  soon  be  a 
mob  peeping  in  at  the  windows  ?  It  is  true,  these  Ro 
man  Catholics,  priests  and  all,  impress  me  as  a  people 
who  have  fallen  far  behind  the  significance  of  their 
symbols.  It  is  as  if  an  ox  had  strayed  into  a  church 
and  were  trying  to  bethink  himself.  Nevertheless,  they 
are  capable  of  reverence  ;  but  we  Yankees  are  a  people 
in  whom  this  sentiment  has  nearly  died  out,  and  in  this 
respect  we  cannot  bethink  ourselves  even  as  oxen.  I 
did  not  mind  the  pictures  nor  the  candles,  whether  tal 
low  or  tin.  Those  of  the  former  which  I  looked  at 
appeared  tawdry.  It  matters  little  to  me  whether  the 
pictures  are  by  a  neophyte  of  the  Algonquin  or  the 
Italian  tribe.  But  I  was  impressed  by  the  quiet  re 
ligious  atmosphere  of  the  place.  It  was  a  great  cavo 


CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL.  13 

in  the  midst  of  a  city ;  and  what  were  the  altars  and 
the  tinsel  but  the  sparkling  stalactics,  into  which  you 
entered  in  a  moment,  and  where  the  still  atmosphere 
and  the  sombre  light  disposed  to  serious  and  profitable 
thought  ?  Such  a  cave  at  hand,  which  you  can  enter 
any  day,  is  worth  a  thousand  of  our  churches  which  are 
open  only  Sundays,  —  hardly  long  enough  for  an  airing, 
—  and  then  filled  with  a  bustling  congregation,  —  a 
church  where  the  priest  is  the  least  part,  where  you 
do  your  own  preaching,  where  the  universe  preaches 
to  you  and  can  be  heard.  I  am  not  sure  but  this  Cath 
olic  religion  would  be  an  admirable  one  if  the  priest 
were  quite  omitted.  I  think  that  I  might  go  to  church 
myself  sometimes  some  Monday,  if  I  lived  in  a  city 
where  there  was  such  a  one  to  go  to.  In  Concord, 
to  be  sure,  we  do  not  need  such.  Our  forests  are  such 
a  church,  far  grander  and  more  sacred.  We  dare  not 
leave  our  meeting-houses  open  for  fear  they  would  be 
profaned.  Such  a  cave,  such  a  shrine,  in  one  of  our 
groves,  for  instance,  how  long  would  it  be  respected  ? 
for  what  purposes  would  it  be  entered,  by  such  baboons 
as  we  are  ?  I  think  of  its  value  not  only  to  religion, 
but  to  philosophy  and  to  poetry  ;  besides  a  reading- 
room,  to  have  a  thinking-room  in  every  city  !  Per 
chance  the  time  will  come  when  every  house  even  will 
have  not  only  its  sleeping-rooms,  and  dining-room,  and 
talking-room  or  parlor,  but  its  thinking-room  also,  and 
the  architects  will  put  it  into  their  plans.  Let  it  be 
furnished  and  ornamented  with  whatever  conduces  to 
serious  and  creative  thought.  I  should  not  object  to 
the  holy  water,  or  any  other  simple  symbol,  if  it  were 
consecrated  by  the  imagination  of  the  worshippers. 
I  heard  that  some  Yankees  bet  that  the  candles  were 


14  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

not  wax,  but  tin.  A  European  assured  them  tliat  they 
were  wax ;  but,  inquiring  of  the  sexton,  he  was  sur 
prised  to  learn  that  they  were  tin  filled  with  oil.  The 
church  was  too  poor  to  afford  wax.  p^ibFTTie  Trot- 
estant  churches,  here  or  elsewhere,  they  did  not  in 
terest  me,  for  it  is  only  as  caves  that  churches  interest 
me  at  all,  and  in  that  respect  they  were  inferior. 

Montreal  makes  the  "impression  of  a  larger  city  than 
you  had  expected  to  find,  though  you  may  have  heard 
that  it  contains  nearly  sixty  thousand  inhabitants.  In 
the  newer  parts  it  appeared  to  be  growing  fast  like  a 
small  New  York,  and  to  be  considerably  Americanized. 
The  names  of  the  squares  reminded  you  of  Paris,  —  the 
Champ  de  Mars,  the  Place  d'Armes,  and  others,  and 
you  felt  as  if  a  French  revolution  might  break  out  any 
moment.  Glimpses  of  Mount  Royal  rising  behind  the 
town,  and  the  names  of  some  streets  in  that  direction, 
make  one  think  of  Edinburgh.  That  hill  sets  off  this 
city  wonderfully.  I  inquired  at  a  principal  bookstore 
for  books  published  in  Montreal.  They  said  that  there 
were  none  but  school-books  and  the  like  ;  they  got  their 
books  from  the  States.  From  time  to  time  we  met  a 
priest  in  the  streets,  for  they  are  distinguished  by  their 
dress,  like  the  civil  police.  Like  clergymen  generally, 
with  or  without  the  gown,  they  made  on  us  the  impres 
sion  of  effeminacy.  We  also  met  some  Sisters  of  Char 
ity,  dressed  in  black,  with  Shaker-shaped  black  bonnets 
and  crosses,  and  cadaverous  faces,  who  looked  as  if  they 
had  almost  cried  their  eyes  out,  their  complexions  par 
boiled  with  scalding  tears  ;  insulting  the  daylight  by 
their  presence,  having  taken  an  oath  not  to  smile.  By 
cadaverous  I  mean  that  their  faces  were  like  the  faces 
of  those  who  have  been  dead  and  buried  for  a  year,  and 


CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL.  15 

then  untombed,  with  the  life's  grief  upon  them,  and  yet, 
for  some  unaccountable  reason,  the  process  of  decay  ar 
rested. 

"  Truth  never  fails  her  servant,  sir,  nor  leaves  him 
With  the  day's  shame  upon  him." 

They  waited  demurejy  on  the  sidewalk  while  a  truck 
laden  with  raisins  was  driven  in  at  the  seminary  of  St. 
Sulpice,  never  once  lifting  their  eyes  from  the  ground. 

The  soldier  here,  as  everywhere  in  Canada,  appeared 
to  be  put  forward,  and  by  his  best  foot.  They  were  in 
the  proportion  of  the  soldiers  to  the  laborers  in  an  Afri 
can  ant-hill.  The  inhabitants  evidently  rely  on  them  in 
a  great  measure  for  music  and  entertainment.  You 
would  meet  with  them  pacing  back  and  forth  before 
some  guard-house  or  passage-way,  guarding,  regarding, 
and  disregarding  all  kinds  of  law  by  turns,  apparently 
for  the  sake  of  the  discipline  to  themselves,  and  not 
because  it  was  important  to  exclude  anybody  from 
entering  that  way.  They  reminded  me  of  the  men 
who  are  paid  for  piling  up  bricks  and  then  throwing 
them  down  again.  On  every  prominent  ledge  you 

r  could  see  England's  hands  holding  the  Canadas,  and  I 
judged  by  the  redness  of  her  knuckles  that  she  would 
soon  have  to  let  go.  In  the  rear  of  such  a  guard-house, 
in  a  large  gravelled  square  or  parade-ground,  called  the 
Champ  de  Mars, 'we  saw  a  large  body  of  soldiers  being 
drilled,  we  being  as  yet  the  only  spectators.  But  they 
did  not  appear  to  notice  us  any  more  than  the  devotees 
in  the  church,  but  were  seemingly  as  indifferent  to  few 
ness  of  spectators  as  the  phenomena  of  nature  are,  what 
ever  they  might  have  been  thinking  under  their  helmets 
of  the  Yankees  that  were  to  come.  Each  man  wore 
white  kid  gloves.  It  was  one  of  the  most  interesting 


16  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

sights  which  I  saw  in  Canada.  The  problem  appeared 
to  be  how  to  smooth  down  all  individual  protuberances 
or  idiosyncrasies,  and  make  a  thousand  men  move  as 
one  man,  animated  by  one  central  will ;  and  there  was 
some  approach  to  success.  They  obeyed  the  signals  of 
a  commander  who  stood  at  a  great  distance,  wand  in 
hand ;  and  the  precision,  and  promptness,  and  harmony 
of  their  movements  could  not  easily  have  been  matched. 
The  harmony  was  far  more  remarkable  than  that  of  any 
choir  or  band,  and  obtained,  no  doubt,  at  a  greater  cost. 
They  made  on  me  the  impression,  not  of  many  individ 
uals,  but  of  one  vast  centipede  of  a  man,  good  for  all 
sorts  of  pulling  down ;  and  why  not  then  for  some  kinds 
of  building  up  ?  If  men  could  combine  thus  earnestly, 
and  patiently,  and  harmoniously  to  some  really  worthy 
end,  what  might  they  not  accomplish  ?  They  now  put 
their  hands,  and  partially  perchance  their  heads,  to 
gether,  and  the  result  is  that  they  are  the  imperfect 
tools  of  an  imperfect  and  tyrannical  government.  But 
if  they  could  put  their  hands  and  heads  and  hearts  and 
all  together,  such  a  co-operation  and  harmony  would  be 
the  very  end  and  success  for  which  government  now  ex 
ists  in  vain,  —  a  government,  as  it  were,  not  only  with 
tools,  but  stock  to  trade  with. 

I  was  obliged  to  frame  some  sentences  that  sounded 
like  French  in  order  to  deal  with  the  market-women, 
who,  for  the  most  part,  cannot  speak  English.  Ac 
cording  to  the  guide-book  the  relative  population  of 
this  city  stands  nearly  thus :  two  fifths  are  French  Ca 
nadian  ;  nearly  one  fifth  British  Canadian ;  one  and  a 
half  fifth  English,  Irish,  and  Scotch  ;  somewhat  less 
than  one  half  fifth  Germans,  United  States  people,  and 
others.  I  saw  nothing  like  pie  for  sale,  and  no  good 


CONCORD  TO  MONTREAL.          17 

cake  to  put  in  my  bundle,  such  as  you  can  easily  find  in 
our  towns,  but  plenty  of  fair-looking  apples,  for  which 
Montreal  Island  is  celebrated,  and  also  pears,  cheaper, 
and  I  thought  better  than  ours,  and  peaches,  which, 
though  they  were  probably  brought  from  the  South, 
were  as  cheap  as  they  commonly  are  with  us.  So  im 
perative  is  the  law  of  demand  and  supply  that,  as  I 
have  been  told,  the  market  of  Montreal  is  sometimes 
supplied  with  green  apples  from  the  State  of  New  York 
some  weeks  even  before  they  are  ripe  in  the  latter  place. 
I  saw  here  the  spruce  wax  which  the  Canadians  chew, 
done  up  in  little  silvered  papers,  a  penny  a  roll ;  also  a 
small  and  shrivelled  fruit  which  they  called  cerises 
mixed  with  many  little  stems  somewhat  like  raisins, 
but  I  soon  returned  what  I  had  bought,  finding  them 
rather  insipid,  only  putting  a  sample  in  my  pocket. 
Since  my  return,  I  find  on  comparison  that  it  is  the 
fruit  of  the  sweet  viburnum  (  Viburnum  Lentago),  which 
with  us  rarely  holds  on  till  it  is  ripe. 

I  stood  on  the  deck  of  the  steamer  John  Munn,  late 
in  the  afternoon,  when  the  second  and  third  ferry-boats 
arrived  from  La  Prairie,  bringing  the  remainder  of  the 
Yankees.  I  never  saw  so  many  caleches,  cabs,  charettes, 
and  similar  vehicles  collected  before,  and  doubt  if  New 
York  could  easily  furnish  more.  The  handsome  and 
substantial  stone  quay,  which  stretches  a  mile  along  the 
river-side,  and  protects  the  street  from  the  ice,  was 
thronged  with  the  citizens  who  had  turned  out  on  foot 
and  in  carriages  to  welcome  or  to  behold  the  Yankees. 
It  was  interesting  to  see  the  caleche  drivers  dash  up 
and  down  the  slope  of  the  quay  with  their  active  little 
horses.  They  drive  much  faster  than  in  our  cities.  I 
have  been  told  that  some  of  them  come  nine  miles  into 


18  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

the  city  every  morning  and  return  every  night,  without 
changing  their  horses  during  the  day.  In  the  midst  of 
the  crowd  of  carts,  I  observed  one  deep  one  loaded  with 
sheep  with  their  legs  tied  together,  and  their  bodies 
piled  one  upon  another,  as  if  the  driver  had  forgotten 
that  they  were  sheep  and  not  yet  mutton.  A  sight,  I 
trust,  peculiar  to  Canada,  though  I  fear  that  it  is  not. 


CHAPTER    II. 

QUEBEC     AND     M  O  NTM  O  R  EN  C  I. 

ABOUT  six  o'clock  we  started  for  Quebec,  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty  miles  distant  by  the  river  ;  gliding  past 
Longueil  and  Boucherville  on  the  right,  and  Pointe  aux 
Trembles,  "so  called  from  having  been  originally  covered 
with  aspens,"  and  Bout  de  Vlsle,  or  the  end  of  the  island, 
on  the  left.  I  repeat  these  names  not  merely  for  want 
of  more  substantial  facts  to  record,  but  because  they 
sounded  singularly  poetic  to  my  ears.  There  certainly 
was  no  lie  in  them.  They  suggested  that  some  simple, 
and,  perchance,  heroic  human  life  might  have  transpired 
there.  There  is  all  the  poetry  in  the  world  in  a  name. 
It  is  a  poem  which  the  mass  of  men  hear  and  read. 
What  is  poetry  in  the  common  sense,  but  a  string  of 
such  jingling  names  ?  I  want  nothing  better  than  a 
good  word.  The  name  of  a  thing  may  easily  be  more 
than  the  thing  itself  to  me.  Inexpressibly  beautiful 
appears  the  recognition  by  man  of  the  least  natural  fact, 
and  the  allying  his  life  to  it.  All  the  world  reiterating 


QUEBEC  AND  MONTMORENCI.  19 

this  slender  truth,  that  aspens  once  grew  there ;  and  the 
swift  inference  is,  that  men  were  there  to  see  them. 
And  so  it  would  be  with  the  names  of  our  native  and 
neighboring  villages,  if  we  had  not  profaned  them. 

The  daylight  now  failed  us,  and  we  went  below ;  but 
I  endeavored  to  console  myself  for  being  obliged  to 
make  this  voyage  by  night,  by  thinking  that  I  did  not 
lose  a  great  deal,  the  shores  being  low  and  rather  un 
attractive,  and  that  the  river  itself  was  much  the  more 
interesting  object.  I  heard  something  in  the  night 
about  the  boat  being  at  William  Henry,  Three  Rivers, 
and  in  the  Richelieu  Rapids,  but  I  was  still  where  I 
had  been  when  I  lost  sight  of  Pointe  aux  Trembles.  To 
hear  a  man  who  has  been  waked  up  at  midnight  in  the 
cabin  of  a  steamboat,  inquiring,  "  Waiter,  where  are  we 
now?"  is,  as  if  at  any  moment  of  the  earth's  revolu 
tion  round  the  sun,  or  of  the  system  round  its  centre, 
one  were  to  raise  himself  up  and  inquire  of  one  of  the 
deck  hands,  "Where  are  we  now?" 

I  went  on  deck  at  daybreak,  when  we  were  thirty  or 
forty  miles  above  Quebec.  The  banks  were  now  higher 
and  more  interesting.  There  was  an  "uninterrupted 
succession  of  white-washed  cottages"  on  each  side  of 
the  river.  This  is  what  every  traveller  tells.  But  it  is 
not  to  be  taken  as  an  evidence  of  the  populousness  of 
the  country  in  general,  hardly  even  of  the  river  banks. 
They  have  presented  a  similar  appearance  for  a  hundred 
years.  The  Swedish  traveller  and  naturalist,  Kalm,  who 
descended  this  river  in  1749,  says  :  "  It  could  really  be 
called  a  village,  beginning  at  Montreal  and  ending  at 
Quebec,  which  is  a  distance  of  more  than  one  hundred 
and  eighty  miles ;  for  the  farm-houses  are  never  above 
five  arpens,  and  sometimes  but  three  asunder,  a  few 


20  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

places  excepted."  Even  in  1684  Hontan  said  that  the 
houses  were  not  more  than  a  gunshot  apart  at  most. 
Erelong  we  passed  Cape  Rouge,  eight  miles  above  Que 
bec,  the  mouth  of  the  Chaudiere  on  the  opposite  or 
south  side,  New  Liverpool  Cove  with  its  lumber  rafts 
and  some  shipping ;  then  Sillery  and  Wolfe's  Cove  and 
the  Heights  of  Abraham  on  the  north,  with  now  a  view 
of  Cape  Diamond,  and  the  citadel  in  front.  The  ap 
proach  to  Quebec  was  very  imposing.  It  was  about  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning  when  we  arrived.  There  is  but 
a  single  street  under  the  cliff  on  the  south  side  of  the 
cape,  which  was  made  by  blasting  the  rocks  and  filling 
up  the  river.  Three-story  houses  did  not  rise  more  than 
one  fifth  or  one  sixth  the  way  up  the  nearly  perpen 
dicular  rock,  whose  summit  is  three  hundred  and  forty- 
five  feet  above  the  water.  We  saw,  as  we  glided  past, 
the  sign  on  the  side  of  the  precipice,  part  way  up,  point 
ing  to  the  spot  where  Montgomery  was  killed  in  1775. 
Formerly  it  was  the  custom  for  those  who  went  to 
Quebec  for  the  first  time  to  be  ducked,  or  else  pay  a 
fine.  Not  even  the  Governor  General  escaped.  But 
we  were  too  many  to  be  ducked,  even  if  the  custom  had 
not  been  abolished.* 

Here  we  were,  in  the  harbor  of  Quebec,  still  three 
hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  in  a  basin  two  miles  across,  where  the  great 
est  depth  is  twenty-eight  fathoms,  and  though  the  water 

*  Hierosme  Lalemant  says  in  1648,  in  his  relation,  he  being  Su 
perior:  "  All  those  who  come  to  New  France  know  well  enough  the 
mountain  of  Notre  Dame,  because  the  pilots  and  sailors,  being  ar 
rived  at  that  part  of  the  Great  River  which  is  opposite  to  those  high 
mountains,  baptize  ordinarily  for  sport  the  new  passengers,  if  they 
do  not  turn  aside  by  some  present  the  inundation  of  this  baptism 
which  one  makes  flow  plentifully  on  their  heads." 


QUEBEC  AND  MONTMORENCI.  21 

is  fresh,  the  tide  rises  seventeen  to  twenty-four  feet,  —  a 
harbor  "  large  and  deep  enough,"  says  a  British  travel 
ler,  "  to  hold  the  English  navy."  I  may  as  well  state 
that,  in  1844,  the  county  of  Quebec  contained  about  forty- 
five  thousand  inhabitants  (the  city  and  suburbs  having 
about  forty-three  thousand)  ;  about  twenty-eight  thou 
sand  being  Canadians  of  French  origin ;  eight  thousand 
British  ;  over  seven  thousand  natives  of  Ireland ;  one 
thousand  five  hundred  natives  of  England;  the  rest 
Scotch  and  others.  Thirty-six  thousand  belong  to  the 
Church  of  Rome. 

Separating  ourselves  from  the  crowd,  we  walked  up 
a  narrow  street,  thence  ascended  by  some  wooden  steps, 
called  the  Break-neck  Stairs,  into  another  steep,  narrow, 
and  zigzag  street,  blasted  through  the  rock,  which  last 
led  through  a  low  massive  stone  portal,  called  Prescott 
Gate,  the  principal  thoroughfare  into  the  Upper  Town. 
This  passage  was  defended  by  cannon,  with  a  guard 
house  over  it,  a  sentinel  at  his  post,  and  other  soldiers 
at  hand  ready  to  relieve  him.  I  rubbed  my  eyes  to  be 
sure  that  I  was  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  was  not 
entering  one  of  those  portals  which  sometimes  adorn  the 
frontispieces  of  new  editions  of  old  black-letter  volumes. 
I  thought  it  would  be  a  good  place  to  read  Froissart's 
Chronicles.  It  was  such  a  reminiscence  of  the  Middle 
Ages  as  Scott's  novels.  Men  apparently  dwelt  there  for 
security.  Peace  be  unto  them !  As  if  the  inhabitants 
of  New  York  were  to  go  over  to  Castle  William  to  live ! 
What  a  place  it  must  be  to  bring  up  children !  Being 
safe  through  the  gate  we  naturally  took  the  street  which 
was  steepest,  and  after  a  few  turns  found  ourselves  on 
the  Durham  Terrace,  a  wooden  platform  on  the  site  of 
the  old  castle  of  St.  Louis,  still  one  hundred  and  fifteen 


22  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

feet  below  the  summit  of  the  citadel,  overlooking  the 
Lower  Town,  the  wharf  where  we  had  landed,  the  har 
bor,  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  and  the  river  and  surrounding 
country  to  a  great  distance.  It  was  literally  a  splendid 
view.  We  could  see  six  or  seven  miles  distant,  in  the 
northeast,  an  indentation  in  the  lofty  shore  of  the  north 
ern  channel,  apparently  on  one  side  of  the  harbor,  which 
marked  the  mouth  of  the  Montmorenci,  whose  celebrated 
fall  was  only  a  few  rods  in  the  rear. 

At  a  shoe-shop,  whither  we  were  directed  for  this  pur 
pose,  we  got  some  of  our  American  money  changed  into 
English.  I  found  that  American  hard  money  would 
have  answered  as  well,  excepting  cents,  which  fell  very 
fast  before  their  pennies,  it  taking  two  of  the  former  to 
make  one  of  the  latter,  and  often  the  penny,  which  had 
cost  us  two  cents,  did  us  the  service  of  one  cent  only. 
Moreover,  our  robust  cents  were  compelled  to  meet  on 
even  terms  a  crew  of  vile  half-penny  tokens,  and  bung- 
town  coppers,  which  had  more  brass  in  their  compo 
sition,  and  so  perchance  made  their  way  in  the  world. 
Wishing  to  get  into  the  citadel,  we  were  directed  to  the 
Jesuits'  Barracks,  —  a  good  part  of  the  public  buildings 
here  are  barracks,  —  to  get  a  pass  of  the  Town  Major. 
We  did  not  heed  the  sentries  at  the  gate,  nor  did  they 
us,  and  what  under  the  sun  they  were  placed  there  for, 
unless  to  hinder  a  free  circulation  of  the  air,  was  not 
apparent.  There  we  saw  soldiers  eating  their  breakfasts 
in  their  mess-room,  from  bare  wooden  tables  in  camp 
fashion.  We  were  continually  meeting  with  soldiers  in 
the  streets,  carrying  funny  little  tin  pails  of  all  shapes, 
even  semicircular,  as  if  made  to  pack  conveniently.  I 
supposed  that  they  contained  their  dinners,  —  so  many 
slices  of  bread  and  butter  to  each,  perchance.  Some- 


QUEBEC  AND  MONTMORENCI.  23 

times  they  were  carrying  some  kind  of  military  chest 
on  a  sort  of  bier  or  hand-barrow,  with  a  springy,  un 
dulating,  military  step,  all  passengers  giving  way  to 
them,  even  the  charette-drivers  stopping  for  them  to 
pass,  —  as  if  the  battle  were  being  lost  from  an  inade 
quate  supply  of  powder.  There  was  a  regiment  of 
Highlanders,  and,  as  I  understood,  of  Royal  Irish,  in 
the  city ;  and  by  this  time  there  was  a  regiment  of 
Yankees  also.  I  had  already  observed,  looking  up  even 
from  the  water,  the  head  and  shoulders  of  some  General 
Poniatowsky,  with  an  enormous  cocked  hat  and  gun, 
peering  over  the  roof  of  a  house,  away  up  where  the 
chimney  caps  commonly  are  with  us,  as  it  were  a  cari 
cature  of  war  and  military  awfulness  ;  but  I  had  not 
gone  far  up  St.  Louis  Street  before  my  riddle  was 
solved,  by  the  apparition  of  a  real  live  Highlander 
under  a  cocked  hat,  and  with  his  knees  out,  standing 
and  marching  sentinel  on  the  ramparts,  between  St. 
Louis  and  St.  John's  Gate.  (It  must  be  a  holy  war 
that  is  waged  there.)  We  stood  close  by  without  fear 
and  looked  at  him.  His  legs  were  somewhat  tanned, 
and  the  hair  had  begun  to  grow  on  them,  as  some  of  our 
wise  men  predict  that  it  will  in  such  cases,  but  I  did  not 
think  they  were  remarkable  in  any  respect.  Notwith 
standing  all  his  warlike  gear,  when  I  inquired  of  him 
the  way  to  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  he  could  not  answer 
me  without  betraying  some  bashfulness  through  his 
broad  Scotch.  Soon  after,  we  passed  another  of  these 
creatures  standing  sentry  at  the  St.  Louis  Gate,  who  let 
us  go  by  without  shooting  us,  or  even  demanding  the 
countersign.  We  then  began  to  go  through  the  gate, 
which  was  so  thick  and  tunnel-like,  as  to  remind  me  of 
those  lines  in  Claudian's  Old  Man  of  Verona,  about  the 


24  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

getting  out  of  the  gate  being  the  greater  part  of  a  jour 
ney  ;  —  as  you  might  imagine  yourself  crawling  through 
an  architectural  vignette  at  the  end  of  a  black-letter 
volume.  We  were  then  reminded  that  we  had  been  in 
a  fortress,  from  which  we  emerged  by  numerous  zig 
zags  in  a  ditch-like  road,  going  a  considerable  distance 
to  advance  a  few  rods,  where  they  could  have  shot  us 
two  or  three  times  over,  if  their  minds  had  been  dis 
posed  as  their  guns  were.,/  The  greatest,  or  rather  the 
most  prominent,  part  of  this  city  was  constructed  with 
the  design  to  offer  the  deadest  resistance  to  leaden  and 
iron  missiles  that  might  be  cast  against  it.  But  it  is  a 
remarkable  meteorological  and  psychological  fact,  that 
it  is  rarely  known  to  rain  lead  with  much  violence,  ex 
cept  on  places  so  constructed.  Keeping  on  about  a  mile 
we  came  to  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  —  for  having  got 
through  with  the  Saints,  we  come  next  to  the  Patriarchs. 
Here  the  Highland  regiment  was  being  reviewed,  while 
the  band  stood  on  one  side  and  played,  —  methinks  it 
was  La  Claire  Fontaine,  the  national  air  of  the  Cana 
dian  French.  This  is  the  site  where  a  real  battle  once 
took  place,  to  commemorate  which  they  have  had  a  sham 
fight  here  almost  every  day  since.  The  Highlanders 
manasuvred  very  well,  and  if  the  precision  of  their 
movements  was  less  remarkable,  they  did  not  appear 
so  stiffly  erect  as  the  English  or  Royal  Irish,  but  had  a 
more  elastic  and  graceful  gait,  like  a  herd  of  their  own 
red  deer,  or  as  if  accustomed  to  stepping  down  the  sides 
of  mountains.  But  they  made  a  sad  impression  on  the 
whole,  for  it  was  obvious  that  all  true  manhood  was  in 
the  process  of  being  drilled  out  of  them.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  soldiers  well  drilled  are,  as  a  class,  peculiarly 
destitute  of  originality  and  independence.  The  officers 


QUEBEC  AND  MONTMOBENCL  25 

appeared  like  men  dressed  above  their  condition.  It  is 
impossible  to  give  the  soldier  a  good  education,  without 
making  him  a  deserter.  His  natural  foe  is  the  govern 
ment  that  drills  him.  What  would  any  philanthropist, 
who  felt  an  interest  in  these  men's  welfare,  naturally  do, 
but  first  of  all  teach  them  so  to  respect  themselves,  that 
they  could  not  be  hired  for  this  work,  whatever  might 
be  the  consequences  to  this  government  or  that ;  —  not 
drill  a  few,  but  educate  all.  I  observed  one  older  man 
among  them,  gray  as  a  wharf-rat,  and  supple  as  the 
Devil,  marching  lock-step  with  the  rest  who  would  have 
to  pay  for  that  elastic  gait. 

We  returned  to  the  citadel  along  the  heights,  pluck 
ing  such  flowers  as  grew  there.  There  was  an  abun 
dance  of  succory  still  in  blossom,  broad-leaved  golden- 
rod,  buttercups,  thorn-bushes,  Canada  thistles,  and  ivy, 
on  the  very  summit  of  Cape  Diamond.  I  also  found 
the  bladder-campion  in  the  neighborhood.  We  there 
enjoyed  an  extensive  view,  which  I  will  describe  in 
another  place.  Our  pass,  which  stated  that  all  the  rules 
were  "  to  be  strictly  enforced,"  as  if  they  were  deter 
mined  to  keep  up  the  semblance  of  reality  to  the  last 
gasp,  opened  to  us  the  Dalhousie  Gate,  and  we  were 
conducted  over  the  citadel  by  a  bare-legged  Highlander 
in  cocked  hat  and  full  regimentals.  He  told  us  that  he 
had  been  here  about  three  years,  and  had  formerly  been 
stationed  at  Gibraltar.  As  if  his  regiment,  having  per 
chance  been  nestled  amid  the  rocks  of  Edinburgh  Cas 
tle,  must  flit  from  rock  to  rock  thenceforth  over  the 
earth's  surface,  like  a  bald  eagle,  or  other  bird  of  prey, 
from  eyrie  to  eyrie.  As  we  were  going  out,  we  met  the 
Yankees  coming  in,  in  a  body,  headed  by  a  red-coated 
officer  called  the  commandant,  and  escorted  by  many 
2 


26  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

citizens,  both  English  and  French  Canadian.  I  there 
fore  immediately  fell  into  the  procession,  and  went  round 
the  citadel  again  with  more  intelligent  guides,  carrying, 
as  before,  all  my  effects  with  me.  Seeing  that  nobody 
walked  with  the  red-coated  commandant,  I  attached  my 
self  to  him,  and  though  I  was  not  what  is  called  well- 
dressed,  he  did  not  know  whether  to  repel  me  or  not, 
for  I  talked  like  one  who  was  not  aware  of  any  de 
ficiency  in  that  respect.  Probably  there  was  not  one 
among  all  the  Yankees  who  went  to  Canada  this  time, 
who  was  not  more  splendidly  dressed  than  I  was.  It 
would  have  been  a  poor  story  if  I  had  not  enjoyed  some 
distinction.  I  had  on  my  "bad- weather  clothes,"  like 
Olaf  Trygesson  the  Northman,  when  he  went  to  the 
Thing  in  England,  where,  by  the  way,  he  won  his  bride. 
As  we  stood  by  the  thirty-two-pounder  on  the  summit 
of  Cape  Diamond,  which  is  fired  three  times  a  day,  the 
commandant  told  me  that  it  would  carry  to  the  Isle  of 
Orleans,  four  miles  distant,  and  that  no  hostile  vessel 
could  come  round  the  island.  I  now  saw  the  subter 
ranean  or,  rather,  "  casemated  barracks  "  of  the  soldiers, 
which  I  had  not  noticed  before,  though  I  might  have 
walked  over  them.  They  had  very  narrow  windows, 
serving  as  loop-holes  for  musketry,  and  small  iron  chim 
neys  rising  above  the  ground.  There  we  saw  the  soldiers 
at  home  and  in  an  undress,  splitting  wood,  —  I  looked  to 
see  whether  with  swords  or  axes,  —  and  in  various  ways 
endeavoring  to  realize  that  their  nation  was  now  at  peace 
with  this  part  of  the  world.  A  part  of  each  regiment, 
chiefly  officers,  are  allowed  to  marry.  A  grandfatherly, 
would-be  witty  Englishman  could  give  a  Yankee  whom 
he  was  patronizing  no  reason  for  the  bare  knees  of  the 
Highlanders,  other  than  oddity.  The  rock  within  the 


QUEBEC  AND  MONTMORENCI.  27 

citadel  is  a  little  convex,  so  that  shells  falling  on  it  would 
roll  toward  the  circumference,  where  the  barracks  of  the 
soldiers  and  officers  are ;  it  has  been  proposed,  therefore, 
to  make  it  slightly  concave,  so  that  they  may  roll  into 
the  centre,  where  they  would  be  comparatively  harm 
less  ;  and  it  is  estimated  that  to  do  this  would  cost 
twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling.  It  may  be  well  to 
remember  this  when  I  build  my  next  house,  and  have 
the  roof  "  all  correct "  for  bombshells. 

At  mid-afternoon  we  made  haste  down  Sault-au-Mate- 
lot  street,  towards  the  Falls  of  Montmorenci,  about  eight 
miles  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  on  the  north  side,  leaving 
the  further  examination  of  Quebec  till  our  return.  On 
our  way,  we  saw  men  in  the  streets  sawing  logs  pit- 
fashion,  and  afterward,  with  a  common  wood-saw  and 
horse,  cutting  the  planks  into  squares  for  paving  the 
streets.  This  looked  very  shiftless,  especially  in  a  coun 
try  abounding  in  water-power,  and  reminded  me  that  I 
was  no  longer  in  Yankee  land.  I  found,  on  inquiry, 
that  the  excuse  for  this  was,  that  labor  was  so  cheap  ; 
and  I  thought,  with  some  pain,  how  cheap  men  are 
here  !  I  have  since  learned  that  the  English  traveller, 
"VVarburton,  remarked,  soon  after  landing  at  Quebec, 
that  everything  was  cheap  there  but  men.  That  must 
be  the  difference  between  going  thither  from  New  and 
from  Old  England.  I  had  already  observed  the  dogs 
harnessed  to  their  little  milk-carts,  which  contain  a  sin 
gle  large  can,  lying  asleep  in  the  gutters  regardless  of 
the  horses,  while  they  rested  from  their  labors,  at  dif 
ferent  stages  of  the  ascent  in  the  Upper  Town.  I  was 
surprised  at  the  regular  and  extensive  use  made  of  these 
animals  for  drawing,  not  only  milk,  but  groceries,  wood, 
&c.  It  reminded  me  that  the  dog  commonly  is  not  put 


28  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

to  any  use.  Cats  catch  mice ;  but  dogs  only  worry  the 
cats.  Kalm,  a  hundred  years  ago,  saw  sledges  here  for 
ladies  to  ride  in,  drawn  by  a  pair  of  dogs.  He  says, 
"A  middle-sized  dog  is  sufficient  to  draw  a  single  per 
son,  when  the  roads  are  good  " ;  «and  he  was  told  by  old 
people,  that  horses  were  very  scarce  in  their  youth,  and 
almost  all  the  land-carriage  was  then  effected  by  dogs. 
They  made  me  think  of  the  Esquimaux,  who,  in  fact, 
are  the  next  people  on  the  north.  Charlevoix  says,  that 
the  first  horses  were  introduced  in  1665. 

We  crossed  Dorchester  Bridge,  over  the  St.  Charles, 
the  little  river  in  which  Cartier,  the  discoverer  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  put  his  ships,  and  spent  the  winter  of 
1535,  and  found  ourselves  on  an  excellent  macadamized 
road,  called  Le  0/iemin  de  .Beauport.  We  had  left  Con 
cord  Wednesday  morning,  and  we  endeavored  to  realize 
that  now,  Friday  morning,  we  were  taking  a  walk  in 
Canada,  in  the  Seigniory  of  Beauport,  a  foreign  country, 
which  a  few  days  before  had  seemed  almost  as  far  off  as 
England  and  France.  Instead  of  rambling  to  Flint's 
Pond  or  the  Sudbury  Meadows,  we  found  ourselves,  after 
being  a  little  detained  in  cars  and  steamboats,  —  after 
spending  half  a  night  at  Burlington,  and  half  a  day  at 
Montreal,  —  taking  a  \valk  down  the  bank  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  the  Falls  of  Montmorenci  and  elsewhere. 
Well,  I  thought  to  myself,  here  I  am  in  a  foreign  coun 
try  ;  let  me  have  my  eyes  about  me,  and  take  it  all  in. 
It  already  looked  and  felt  a  good  deal  colder  than  it  had 
in  New  England,  as  we  might  have  expected  it  would. 
I  realized  fully  that  I  was  four  degrees  nearer  the  pole, 
and  shuddered  at  the  thought ;  and  I  wondered  if  it 
were  possible  that  the  peaches  might  not  be  all  gone 
when  I  returned.  It  was  an  atmosphere  that  made  me 


QUEBEC  AND  MONTMORENCI.  29 

think  of  the  fur-trade,  which  is  so  interesting  a  depart 
ment  in  Canada,  for  I  had  for  all  head-covering  a  thin 
palm-leaf  hat  without  lining,  that  cost  twenty-five  cents, 
and  over  my  coat  one  of  those  unspeakably  cheap,  as 
well  as  thin,  brown  linen  sacks  of  the  Oak  Hall  pattern, 
which  every  summer  appear  all  over  New  England,  thick 
as  the  leaves  upon  the  trees.    It  was  a  thoroughly  Yan 
kee  costume,  which  some  of  my  fellow-travellers  wore 
in  the  cars  to  save  their  coats  a  dusting.     I  wore  mine, 
at  first,  because  it  looked  better  than  the  coat  it  covered, 
and   last,  because   two   coats  were  warmer  than   one, 
though  one  was  thin  and  dirty.     I  never  wear  my  best 
coat  on  a  journey,  though  perchance  I  could  show  a 
certificate  to  prove  that  I  have  a  more  costly  one,  at 
least,  at  home,  if  that  were  all  that  a  gentieniail~iu-~ 
quired.     It  is  not  wise  for  a  traveller  to  go  dressed.     I 
should  no  more  think  of  it  than  of  putting  on  a  clean 
dicky  and  blacking  my  shoes  to  go  a-fishing ;  as  if  you 
were  going  out  to  dine,  when,  in  fact,  the  genuine  travel 
ler  is  going  out  to  work  hard,  and  fare  harder,  —  to  eat 
a  cru&t  by  the  wayside  whenever  he  can  get  it.     Honest 
travelling  is  about  as  dirty  work  as  you  can  do,  and  a 
man  needs  a  pair  of  overalls  for  it.    As  for  blacking  my 
shoes  in  such  a  case,  I  should  as  soon  think  of  blacking 
my  face.     I  carry  a  piece  of  tallow  to  preserve  the 
leather,  and  keep  out  the  water ;  that 's  all ;  and  many 
an  officious  shoe-black,  who  carried  off  my  shoes  when 
I  was  slumbering,  mistaking  me  for  a  gentleman,  has 
had  occasion  to  repent  it  before  he  produced  a  gloss  on 
them. 

My  pack,  in  fact,  was  soon  made,  for  I  keep  a  short 
list  of  those  articles  which,  from  frequent  experience,  I 
have  found  indispensable  to  the  foot-traveller;  and,  when 


30  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

I  am  about  to  start,  I  have  only  to  consult  that,  to  be 
sure  that  nothing  is  omitted,  and,  what  is  more  impor 
tant,  nothing  superfluous  inserted.  Most  of  my  fellow- 
travellers  carried  carpet-bags,  or  valises.  Sometimes 
one  had  two  or  three  ponderous  yellow  valises  in  his 
clutch,  at  each  hitch  of  the  cars,  as  if  we  were  going  to 
have  another  rush  for  seats ;  and  when  there  was  a  rush 
in  earnest,  and  there  were  not  a  few,  I  would  see  my 
man  in  the  crowd,  with  two  or  three  affectionate  lusty 
fellows  along  each  side  of  his  arm,  between  his  shoulder 
and  his  valises,  which  last  held  them  tight  to  his  back, 
like  the  nut  on  the  end  of  a  screw.  I  could  not  help  v! 
asking  in  my  mind,  "What  so  great  cause  for  showing  1 
la  to  tho  vhen  perhaps  your  very  nieces  VJ 

stay~at  home  for  want  of  an  escoi-t  ?          h  iuld'j 
have  liked  to  be  present  when  the  custom-house  ww-.c 
eaine  aboard  of  him,  and  asked  him  to  declare  u\ «; 
honor  if  he  had  anything  but  wearing  apparel  in  them. 
Even  the  elephant  carries  but  a  small  trunk  on  his  jour 
neys.     The  perfection  of  travelling  is  to  travel  without" 
baggage.     After  considerable  reflection  and  experience, 
I  have  concluded  that  the  best  bag  for  the  foot-traveller 
is  made  with  a  handkerchief,  or,  if  he  study  appearances, 
a  piece  of  stiff  brown  paper,  well  tied  up,  with  a  fresh 
piece  within  to  put  outside  when  the  first  is  torn.     That 
is  good  for  both  town  and  country,  and  none  will  knowl 
but  you  are  carrying  home  the  silk  for  a  new  gown  for 
your  wife,  when  it  may  be  a  dirty  shirt.  A  bundle  which 
you  can  carry  literally  under  your  arm,  and  which  will 
shrink  and  swell  with  its  contents.     I  never  found  the 
carpet-bag  of  equal  capacity,  which  was  not  a  bundle  of 
itself.  We  styled  ourselves  the  Knights  of  the  Umbrella 
and  the  Bundle ;  for  wherever  we  went,  whether  to  Notre  \ 


< 

QUEBEC  AND  MONTMOBMtd.  31 

ie  or  Mount  Royal,  or  the  Champ-de-Mars,  to  the 
•n  Major's  or  the  Bishop's  Palace,  to  the  Citadel, 
i  a  bare-legged  Highlander  for  our  escort,  or  to  the 
us  of  Abraham,  to  dinner  or  to  bed,  the  umbrella 
the  bundle  went  with  us  ;  for  we  wished  to  be  ready 
ligress  at  any  moment.     We  made  it  our  home  no 
ire  in  particular,  but  everywhere  where  our  umbrella 
1  bundle  were.     It  would  have  been  an  amusing  cir- 
astance,  if  the  Mayor  of  one  of  those  cities  had  po 
ly  asked  us  where  we  were  staying.     "We  could  only 
uuve  answered,  that  we  were  staying  with  his  Honor  for 
the  time  being.     I  was  amused  when,  after  our  return, 
some  green  ones  inquired  if  we  found  it  easy  to  get  ac 
commodated  ;    as  if  we  went  abroad^  to  get  accommo 
dated,  when  we  can  get  that  at  home. 

We  met  with  many  charettes,  bringing  wood  and  stone 

the  city.     The  most  ordinary  looking  horses  travelled 

faster  than  ours,  or,  perhaps  they  were  ordinary  looking, 

because,  as  I  am  told,  the   Canadians  do  not  use  the 

.rry-comb.     Moreover,  it  is  said,  that  on  the  approach 

'  winter  their  horses  acquire  an  increased  quantity  of 

lir,  to  protect  them  from  the  cold.     If  this  be  true, 

>me  of  our  horses  would  make  you  think  winter  were 

pproaching,  even  in  midsummer.     We  soon  began  to 

3e  women  and  girls  at  work  in  the  fields,  digging  pota- 

)es  alone,  or  bundling  up  the  grain  which  the  men  cut. 

They  appeared  in  rude  health,  with  a  great  deal  of  color 

.i  i  their  cheeks,  and,  if  their  occupation  had  made  them 

•oarse,  it  impressed  me  as  better  in  its  effects  than  mak- 

og  shirts  at  fourpence  apiece,  or  doing  nothing  at  all ; 

•  mless  it  be  chewing  slate  pencils,  with  still  smaller  re- 

ults.      They  were  much  more  agreeable  objects,  with 

heir  great   broad-brimmed   hats  and   flowing   dresses, 


32  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

than  the  men  and  boys.  "YYe  afterwards  saw  them  doing 
various  other  kinds  of  work  ;  indeed,  I  thought  that  we 
saw  more  women  at  work  out  of  doors  than  men.  On 
our  return,  we  observed  in  this  town  a  girl  with  Indian 
boots,  nearly  two  feet  high,  taking  the  harness  off  a  dog. 
The  purity  and  transparency  of  the  atmosphere  were 
wonderful.  When  we  had  been  walking  an  hour,  we 
were  surprised,  on  turning  round,  to  see  how  near  the 
city,  with  its  glittering  tin  roofs,  still  looked.  A  village 
ten  miles  off  did  not  appear  to  be  more  than  three  or 
four.  I  was  convinced  that  you  could  see  objects  dis 
tinctly  there  much  farther  than  here.  It  is  true  the 
villages  are  of  a  dazzling  white,  but  the  dazzle  is  to  be 
referred,  perhaps,  to  the  transparency  of  the  atmosphere 
as  much  as  to  the  whitewash. 

We  were  now  fairly  in  the  village  of  Beauport,  though 
there  was  still  but  one  road.  The  houses  stood  close  upon 
this,  without  any  front-yards,  and  at  any  angle  with  it, 
as  if  they  had  dropped  down,  being  set  with  more  refer 
ence  to  the  road  which  the  sun  travels.  It  being  about 
sundown,  and  the  Falls  not  far  off,  we  began  to  look 
round  for  a  lodging,  for  we  preferred  to  put  up  at  a  pri 
vate  house,  that  we  might  see  more  of  the  inhabitants. 
We  inquired  first  at  the  most  promising  looking  houses, 
if,  indeed,  any  were  promising.  When  we  knocked,  they 
shouted  some  French  word  for  come  in,  perhaps  entrez, 
and  we  asked  for  a  lodging  in  English ;  but  we  found, 
unexpectedly,  that  they  spoke  French  only.  Then  we 
went  along  and  tried  another  house,  being  generally 
saluted  by  a  rush  of  two  or  three  little  curs,  which 
readily  distinguished  a  foreigner,  and  which  we  were 
prepared  now  to  hear  bark  in  French.  Our  first  question 
would  be,  Parlez-vous  Anglais?  but  the  invariable  an- 


QUEBEC  AND  MONTMORENCI.  33 

swer  was,  Non,  monsieur  ;  and  we  soon  found  that  tliQ 
inhabitants  were  exclusively  French  Canadians,  and  no 
body  spoke  English  at  all,  any  more  than  in  France  ; 
that,  in  fact,  we  were  in  a  foreign  country,  where  the 
inhabitants  uttered  not  one  familiar  sound  to  us.  Then 
we  tried  by  turns  to  talk  French  with  them,  in  which  we 
succeeded  sometimes  pretty  well,  but  for  the  most  part, 
pretty  ill.  Pouvez-vous  nous  donner  un  lit  cette  nuit  ? 
we  would  ask,  and  then  they  would  answer  with  French 
volubility,  so  that  we  could  catch  only  a  word  here  and 
there.  We  could  understand  the  women  and  children 
generally  better  than  the  men,  and  they  us  ;  and  thus, 
after  a  while,  we  would  learn  that  they  had  no  more 
beds  than  they  used. 

So  we  were  compelled  to  inquire :  Ya-t-il  une  maison 
puUique  id  ?  (auberge  we  should  have  said,  perhaps,  for 
they  seemed  never  to  have  heard  of  the  other),  and  they 
answered  at  length  that  there  was  no  tavern,  unless  we 
could  get  lodgings  at  the  mill,  le  moulin,  which  we  had 
passed  ;  or  they  would  direct  us  to  a  grocery,  and  almost 
every  house  had  a  small  grocery  at  one  end  of  it.  We 
called  on  the  public  notary  or  village  lawyer,  but  he  had 
no  more  beds  nor  English  than  the  rest.  At  one  house 
there  was  so  good  a  misunderstanding  at  once  established 
through  the  politeness  of  all  parties,  that  we  were'  en 
couraged  to  walk  in  and  sit  down,  and  ask  for  a  glass  of 
water  ;  and  having  drank  their  water,  we  thought  it  was 
as  good  as  to  have  tasted  their  salt.  When  our  host  and 
his  wife  spoke  of  their  poor  accommodations,  meaning 
for  themselves,  we  assured  them  that  they  were  good 
enough,  for  we  thought  that  they  were  only  apologizing 
for  the  poorness  of  the  accommodations  they  were  about 
to  offer  us,  and  we  did  not  discover  our  mistake  till  they 

2*  C 


34  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

took  us  up  a  ladder  into  a  loft,  and  showed  to  our  eyes 
what  they  had  been  laboring  in  vain  to  communicate  to  our 
brains  through  our  ears,  that  they  had  but  that  one  apart 
ment  with  its  few  beds  for  the  whole  family.  We  made 
our  a-dieus  forthwith,  and  with  gravity,  perceiving  the 
literal  signification  of  that  word.  We  were  finally  taken 
in  at  a  sort  of  public-house,  whose  master  worked  for 
Patterson,  the  proprietor  of  the  extensive  saw-mills 
driven  by  a  portion  of  the  Montmorenci  stolen  from  the 
fall,  whose  roar  we  now  heard.  We  here  talked,  or  mur 
dered  French  all  the  evening,  with  the  master  of  the 
house  and  his  family,  and  probably  had  a  more  amusing 
time  than  if  we  had  completely  understood  one  another. 
At  length  they  showed  us  to  a  bed  in  their  best  cham 
ber,  very  high  to  get  into,  with  a  low  wooden  rail  to  it. 
It  had  no  cotton  sheets,  but  coarse,  home-made,  dark 
colored,  linen  ones.  Afterward,  we  had  to  do  with  sheets 
still  coarser  than  these,  and  nearly  the  color  of  our  blan 
kets.  There  was  a  large  open  buffet  loaded  with  crock 
ery,  in  one  corner  of  the  room,  as  if  to  display  their 
wealth  to  travellers,  and  pictures  of  Scripture  scenes, 
French,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  hung  around.  Our  hostess 
came  back  directly  to  inquire  if  we  would  have  brandy 
for  breakfast.  The  next  morning,  when  I  asked  their 
names,  she  took  down  the  temperance  pledges  of  herself 
and  husband,  and  children,  which  were  hanging  against 
the  wall.  They  were  Jean  Baptiste  Binet,  and  his  wife, 
Genevieve  Binet.  Jean  Baptiste  is  the  sobriquet  of 
the  French  Canadians. 

After  breakfast  we  proceeded  to  the  fall,  which  was 
within  half  a  mile,  and  at  this  distance  its  rustling  sound, 
like  the  wind  among  the  leaves,  filled  all  the  air.  We 
were  disappointed  to  find  that  we  were  in  some  measure 


QUEBEC   AND   MONTMORENCI.  35 

shut  out  from  the  west  side  of  the  fall  by  the  private 
grounds, and  fences  of  Patterson,  who  appropriates  not 
only  a  part  of  the  water  for  his  mill,  but  a  still  larger 
part  of  the  prospect,  so  that  we  were  obliged  to  trespass. 
This  gentleman's  mansion-house  and  grounds  were  for 
merly  occupied  by  the  Duke  of  Kent,  father  to  Queen 
Victoria.  It  appeared  to  me  in  bad  taste  for  an  indi 
vidual,  though  he  were  the  father  of  Queen  Victoria,  to 
obtrude  himself  with  his  land  titles,  or  at  least  his  fences, 
on  so  remarkable  a  natural  phenomenon,  which  should, 
in  every  sense,  belong  to  mankind.  Some  falls  should 
even  be  kept  sacred  from  the  intrusion  of  mills  and 
factories,  as  water  privileges  in  another  than  the  mill 
wright's  sense.  This  small  river  falls  perpendicularly 
nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  at  one  pitch.  The  St. 
Lawrence  falls  only  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  feet  at 
Niagara.  It  is  a  very  simple  and  noble  fall,  and  leaves 
nothing  to  be  desired ;  but  the  most  that  I  could  say  of 
it  would  only  have  the  force  of  one  other  testimony  to 
assure  the  reader  that  it  is  there.  We  looked  directly 
down  on  it  from  the  point  of  a  projecting  rock,  and  saw 
far  below  us,  on  a  low  promontory,  the  grass  kept  fresh 
and  green  by  the  perpetual  drizzle,  looking  like  moss. 
The  rock  is  a  kind  of  slate,  in  the  crevices  of  which 
grew  ferns  and  golden-rods.  The  prevailing  trees  on 
the  shores  were  spruce  and  arbor-vitse,  —  the  latter  very 
large  and  now  full  of  fruit,  —  also  aspens,  alders,  and  the 
mountain-ash  with  its  berries.  Every  emigrant  who  ar 
rives  in  this  country  by  way  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  as  he 
opens  a  point  of  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  sees  the  Montmo- 
renci  tumbling  into  the  Great  River  thus  magnificently 
in  a  vast  white  sheet,  making  its  contribution  with  em 
phasis,  lioberval's  pilot,  Jean  Alphonse,  saw  this  fall 


36  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

thus,  and  described  it,  in  1542.  It  is  a  splendid  intro 
duction  to  the  scenery  of  Quebec.  Instead  of  an  arti 
ficial  fountain  in  its  square,  Quebec  has  this  magnificent 
natural  waterfall  to  adorn  one  side  of  its  harbor.  Within 
the  mouth  of  the  chasm  below,  which  can  be  entered 
only  at  ebb  tide,  we  had  a  grand  view  at  once  of  Que 
bec  and  of  the  fall.  Kalm  says  that  the  noise  of  the 
fall  is  sometimes  heard  at  Quebec,  about  eight  miles 
distant,  and  is  a  sign  of  a  northeast  wind.  The  side  of 
this  chasm,  of  soft  and  crumbling  slate  too  steep  to  climb, 
was  among  the  memorable  features  of  the  scene.  In  the 
winter  of  1829  the  frozen  spray  of  the  fall,  descending 
on  the  ice  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  made  a  hill  one  hundred 
and  twenty-six  feet  high.  It  is  an  annual  phenomenon 
which  some  think  may  help  explain  the  formation  of 
glaciers. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  fall  we  began  to  notice  what 
looked  like  our  red-fruited  thorn  bushes,  grown  to  the 
size  of  ordinary  apple-trees,  very  common,  and  full  of 
large  red  or  yellow  fruit,  which  the  inhabitants  called 
pommettes,  but  I  did  not  learn  that  they  were  put  to  any 
use. 


ST.  ANNE.  37 

CHAPTER    III. 

ST.    ANNE. 

BY  the  middle  of  the  forenoon,  though  it  was  a  rainy 
day,  we  were  once  more  on  our  way  down  the  north 
bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  in  a  northeasterly  direction, 
toward  the  Falls  of  St.  Anne,  which  are  about  thirty 
miles  from  Quebec.  The  settled,  more  level,  and  fertile 
portion  of  Canada  East  may  be  described  rudely  as  a 
triangle,  with  its  apex  slanting  toward  the  northeast, 
about  one  hundred  miles  wide  at  its  base,  and  from  two 
to  three,  or  even  four  hundred  miles  long,  if  you  reckon 
its  narrow  northeastern  extremity ;  it  being  the  imme 
diate  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  its  tributaries, 
rising  by  a  single  or  by  successive  terraces  toward  the 
mountains  on  either  hand.  Though  the  words  Canada 
East  on  the  map  stretch  over  many  rivers  and  lakes 
and  unexplored  wildernesses,  the  actual  Canada,  which 
might  be  the  colored  portion  of  the  map,  is  but  a  little 
clearing  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  which  one  of  those 
syllables  would  more  than  cover.  The  banks  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  are  rather  low  from  Montreal  to  the  Richelieu 
Rapids,  about  forty  miles  above  Quebec.  Thence  they 
rise  gradually  to  Cape  Diamond,  or  Quebec.  Where 
we  now  were,  eight  miles  northeast  of  Quebec,  the 
mountains  which  form  the  northern  side  of  this  triangle 
were  only  five  or  six  miles  distant  from  the  river,  grad 
ually  departing  farther  and  farther  from  it,  on  the  west, 
till  they  reach  the  Ottawa,  and  making  haste  to  meet  it 
on  the  east,  at  Cape  Tourmente,  now  in  plain  sight  about 
twenty  miles  distant.  So  that  we  were  travelling  in  a 


38  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

very  narrow  and  sharp  triangle  between  the  mountains 
and  the  river,  tilted  up  toward  the  mountains  on  the 
north,  never  losing  sight  of  our  great  fellow-traveller  on 
our  right.  According  to  Bouchette's  Topographical  De 
scription  of  the  Canadas,  we  were  in  the  Seigniory  of 
the  Cote  de  Beaupre",  in  the  county  of  Montmorenci,  and 
the  district  of  Quebec ;  in  that  part  of  Canada  which 
was  the  first  to  be  settled,  and  where  the  face  of  the 
country  and  the  population  have  undergone  the  least 
change  from  the  beginning,  where  the  influence  of  the 
States  and  of  Europe  is  least  felt,  and  the  inhabitants 
see  little  or  nothing  of  the  world  over  the  walls  of  Que 
bec.  This  Seigniory  was  granted  in  1636,  and  is  now 
the  property  of  the  Seminary  of  Quebec.  It  is  the 
most  mountainous  one  in  the  province.  There  are 
some  half  a  dozen  parishes  in  it,  each  containing  a 
church,  parsonage-house,  grist-mill,  and  several  saw 
mills.  We  were  now  in  the  most  westerly  parish  called 
Ange  Gardien,  or  the  Guardian  Angel,  which  is  bounded 
on  the  west  by  the  Montmorenci.  The  north  bank  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  here  is  formed  on  a  grand  scale.  It 
slopes  gently,  either  directly  from  the  shore,  or  from  the 
edge  of  an  interval,  till,  at  the  distance  of  about  a  mile, 
it  attains  the  height  of  four  or  five  hundred  feet.  The 
single  road  runs  along  the  side  of  the  slope  two  or  three 
hundred  feet  above  the  river  at  first,  and  from  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  to  a  mile  distant  from  it,  and  affords  fine  views 
of  the  north  channel,  which  is  about  a  mile  wide,  and  of 
the  beautiful  Isle  of  Orleans,  about  twenty  miles  long  by 
five  wide,  where  grow  the  best  apples  and  plums  in  the 
Quebec  District. 

Though  there  was  but  this  single  road,  it  was  a  con 
tinuous  village  for  as  far  as  we  walked  this  day  and  the 


ST.   ANNE.  39 

next,  or  about  thirty  miles  down  the  river,  the  houses 
being  as  near  together  all  the  way  as  in  the  middle  of 
one  of  our  smallest  straggling  country  villages,  and  we 
could  never  tell  by  their  number  when  we  were  on  the 
skirts  of  a  parish,  for  the  road  never  ran  through  the 
fields  or  woods.  We  were  told  that  it  was  just  six  miles 
from  one  parish  church  to  another.  I  thought  that  we 
saw  every  house  in  Ange  Gardien.  Therefore,  as  it 
was  a  muddy  day,  we  never  got  out  of  the  mud,  nor 
out  of  the  village,  unless  we  got  over  the  fence ;  then 
indeed,  if  it  was  on  the  north  side,  we  were  out  of  the 
civilized  world.  There  were  sometimes  a  few  more 
houses  near  the  church,  it  is  true,  but  we  had  only  to 
go  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  road  to  the  top  of  the 
bank  to  find  ourselves  on  the  verge  of  the  uninhabited, 
and,  for  the  most  part,  unexplored  wilderness  stretching 
toward  Hudson's  Bay.  The  farms  accordingly  were 
extremely  long  and  narrow,  each  having  a  frontage  on 
the  river.  Bouchette  accounts  for  this  peculiar  manner 
of  laying  out  a  village  by  referring  to  "  the  social  char 
acter  of  the  Canadian  peasant,  who  is  singularly  fond 
of  neighborhood,"  also  to  the  advantage  arising  from  a 
concentration  of  strength  in  Indian  times.  Each  farm, 
called  terre,  he  says,  is,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  three 
arpents  wide  by  thirty  deep,  that  is,  very  nearly  thirty- 
five  by  three  hundred  and  forty-nine  of  our  rods ;  some 
times  one  half  arpent  by  thirty,  or  one  to  sixty ;  some- 
times,  in  fact,  a  few  yards  by  half  a  mile.  Of  course  it 
costs  more  for  fences.  A  remarkable  difference  between 
the  Canadian  and  the  New  England  character  appears 
from  the  fact  that  in  1745,  the  French  government  were 
obliged  to  pass  a  law  forbidding  the  farmers  or  censi- 
taires  building  on  land  less  than  one  and  a  half  arpents 


40  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

front  by  thirty  or  forty  deep,  under  a  certain  penalty,  in 
order  to  compel  emigration,  and  bring  the  seigneur's 
estates  all  under  cultivation  ;  and  it  is  thought  that  they 
have  now  less  reluctance  to  leave  the  paternal  roof  than 
formerly,  "removing  beyond  the  sight  of  the  parish 
spire,  or  the  sound  of  the  parish  bell."  But  I  find  that 
in  the  previous  or  seventeenth  century,  the  complaint, 
often  renewed,  was  of  a  totally  opposite  character, 
namely,  that  the  inhabitants  dispersed  and  exposed 
themselves  to  the  Iroquois.  Accordingly,  about  1664, 
the  king  was  obliged  to  order  that  "  they  should  make 
no  more  clearings  except  one  next  to  another,  and  that 
they  should  reduce  their  parishes  to  the  form  of  the 
parishes  in  France  as  much  as  possible."  The  Canadians 
of  those  days,  at  least,  possessed  a  roving  spirit  of  ad 
venture  which  carried  them  further,  in  exposure  to 
hardship  and  danger,  than  ever  the  New  England  colo 
nist  went,  and  led  them,  though  not  to  clear  and  colo 
nize  the  wilderness,  yet  to  range  over  it  as  coureurs  de 
bois,  or  runners  of  the  woods,  or  as  Hontan  prefers  to 
call  them  coureurs  de  risques,  runners  of  risks  ;  to  say 
nothing  of  their  enterprising  priesthood  ;  and  Charlevoix 
thinks  that  if  the  authorities  had  taken  the  right  steps 
to  prevent  the  youth  from  ranging  the  woods  (de  courir 
les  bois)  they  would  have  had  an  excellent  militia  to 
fight  the  Indians  and  English. 

The  road,  in  this  clayey  looking  soil,  was  exceedingly 
muddy  in  consequence  of  the  night's  rain.  "We  met  an 
old  woman  directing  her  dog,  which  was  harnessed  to  a 
little  cart,  to  the  least  muddy  part  of  it.  It  was  a  beg 
garly  sight.  But  harnessed  to  the  cart  as  he  was,  we 
heard  him  barking  after  we  had  passed,  though  we 
looked  anywhere  but  to  the  cart  to  see  where  the  dog 


ST.  ANNE.  41 

was  that  barked.  The  houses  commonly  fronted  the 
south,  whatever  angle  they  might  make  with  the  road  ; 
and  frequently  they  had  no  door  nor  cheerful  window  on 
the  roadside.  Half  the  time  they  stood  fifteen  to  forty 
rods  from  the  road,  and  there  was  no  very  obvious  pas 
sage  to  them,  so  that  you  would  suppose  that  there  must 
be  another  road  running  by  them.  They  were  of  stone, 
rather  coarsely  mortared,  but  neatly  whitewashed,  almost 
invariably  one  story  high  and  long  in  proportion  to  their 
height,  with  a  shingled  roof,  the  shingles  being  pointed, 
for  ornament,  at  the  eaves,  like  the  pickets  of  a  fence, 
and  also  one  row  half-way  up  the  roof.  The  gables 
sometimes  projected  a  foot  or  two  at  the  ridge-pole  only. 
Yet  they  were  very  humble  and  unpretending  dwellings. 
They  commonly  had  the  date  of  their  erection  on  them. 
The  windows  opened  in  the  middle,  like  blinds,  and 
were  frequently  provided  with  solid  shutters.  Some 
times,  when  we  walked  along  the  back  side  of  a  house 
which  stood  near  the  road,  we  observed  stout  stakes 
leaning  against  it,  by  which  the  shutters,  now  pushed 
half  open,  were  fastened  at  night ;  within,  the  houses 
were  neatly  ceiled  with  wood  not  painted.  The  oven 
was  commonly  out  of  doors,  built  of  stone  and  mortar, 
frequently  on  a  raised  platform  of  planks.  The  cellar 
•  was  often  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road,  in  front  of 
or  behind  the  houses,  looking  like  an  ice-house  with  us 
with  "a  lattice  door  for  summer.  The  very  few  mechan 
ics  whom  we  met  had  an  old-Bettyish  look,  in  their 
aprons  and  bonnets  rouges,  like  fools'  caps.  The  men 
wore  commonly  the  same  bonnet  rouge,  or  red  woollen 
or  worsted  cap,  or  sometimes  blue  or  gray,  looking  to  us 
as  if  they  had  got  up  with  their  night-caps  on,  and,  in 
fact,  I  afterwards  found  that  they  had.  Their  clothes 


42  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

were  of  the  cloth  of  the  country,  etoffe  du  pays,  gr,ay  or 
some  other  plain  color.  The  women  looked  stout,  with 
gowns  that  stood  out  stiffly,  also,  for  the  most  part,  ap 
parently  of  some  home-made  stuff.  We  also  saw  some 
specimens  of  the  more  characteristic  winter  dress  of  the 
Canadian,  and  I  have  since  frequently  detected  him  in 
New  England  by  his  coarse  gray  homespun  capote  and 
picturesque  red  sash,  and  his  well-furred  cap,  made  to 
protect  his  ears  against  the  severity  of  his  climate. 
/It  drizzled  all  clay,  so  that  the  roads  did  not  improve." 
We  began  now  to  meet  with  wooden  crosses  frequently, 
by  the  roadside,  about  a  dozen  feet  high,  often  old  and 
toppling  down,  sometimes  standing  in  a  square  wooden 
platform,  sometimes  in  a  pile  of  stones,  with  a  little 
niche  containing  a  picture  of  the  Virgin  -and  Child,  or 
of  Christ  alone,  sometimes  with  a  string  of  beads,  and 
covered  with  a  piece  of  glass  to  keep  out  the  rain,  with 
the  words,  pour  la  vierge,  or  Iniri,  on  them.  Frequently, 
on  the  cross-bar,  there  would  be  quite  a  collection  of 
symbolical  knickknacks,  looking  like  an  Italian's  board ; 
the  representation  in  wood  of  a  hand,  a  hammer,  spikes, 
pincers,  a  flask  of  vinegar,  a  ladder,  &c.,  the  whole,  per 
chance,  surmounted  by  a  weathercock  ;  but  I  could  not 
look  at  an  honest  weathercock  in  this  walk  without  mis 
trusting  that  there  was  some  covert  reference  in  it  to  St. 
Peter.  From  time  to  time  we  passed  a  little  one-story 
chapel-like  building,  with  a  tin-roofed  spire,  a  shrine, 
perhaps  it  would  be  called,  close  to  the  pathside,  with  a 
lattice  door,  through  which  we  could  see  an  altar,  and 
pictures  about  the  walls ;  equally  open,  through  rain 
and  shine,  though  there  was  no  getting  into  it.  At  these 
places  the  inhabitants  kneeled  and  perhaps  breathed  a 
short  prayer.  We  saw  one  school-house  in  our  walk, 


ST.  ANNE.  43 

.  ad  listened  to  the  sounds  which  issued  from  it ;  but  it 
Appeared  like  a  place  where  the  process,  not  of  enlight- 
ling,  but  of  obfuscating  the  mind  was  going  on,  and 
le  pupils  received  only  so  much  light  as  could  pene- 
•ate  the  shadow  of  the  Catholic  Church.   The  churches 
ere  very  picturesque,  and  their  interior  much  more 
lowy  than  the  dwelling-houses  promised.     They  were 
?  stone,  for  it  was  ordered,  in  1699,  that  that  should  be 
heir  material.     They  had  tinned  spires,  and  quaint  or- 
laments.    That  of  1'Ange  Gardien  had  a  dial  on  it,  with 
lie  Middle  Age  Roman  numerals  on  its  face,  and  some 
unages  in  niches  on  the  outside.     Probably  its  counter- 
:  »art  has  existed  in  Normandy  for  a  thousand  years.    At 
i-ie  church  of  Chateau  Richer,  which  is  the  next  parish 
to  1'Ange  Gardien,  we  read,  looking  over  the  wall,  the 
inscriptions  in   the  adjacent  churchyard,  which  began 
with,  " Id  git "  or  " Repose"  and  one  over  a  boy  con 
tained,  "  Priez  pour  lui."     This  answered  as  well  as 
pere  la  Chaise.     We  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  cure's 
house  here,  when  a  sleek  friar-like  personage,  in  his"' 
sacerdotal  robe,  appeared.    To  our  Parlez-vous  Anglais? 
even  he  answered,  "  Non,  Monsieur " ;  but  at  last  we 
;aade  him  understand  what  we  wanted.     It  was  to  find 
the  ruins  of  the  old  chateau.     "  Ah  !  oui  !  oui  !  "  he 
exclaimed,  and,  donning  his  coat,  hastened  forth,  and 
Conducted  us  to  a  small  heap  of  rubbish  which  we  had 
already  examined.     He  said  that  fifteen  vears  before,  it 
was  plus  considerable.      Seeing  at  that/ moment  three 
little  red  birds  fly  out  of  a  crevice  in  the  ruins,  up  into 
,n  arbor-vita3  tree,  which  grew  out  of  them,  I  asked 
lim  their  names,  in  such  French  as  I  could  muster,  but 
le  neither  understood  me  nor  ornithology ;  he  only  in 
quired  where  we  had  appris  a  parler  Frangais  /  wTe  told 


. 

44  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

him,  dans  les Etats-Unis;  and  so  we  bowed  him  into  his 
house  again.  I  was  surprised  to  find  a  man  wearing  a 
black  coat,  and  with  apparently  no  work  to  do,  even  in 
that  part  of  the  world. 

The  universal  salutation  from  the  inhabitants  whom 
we  met  was  bon  jour,  at  the  same  time  touching  the 
hat ;  with  bon  jour,  and  touching  your  hat,  you  may  go 
smoothly  through  all  Canada  East.  A  little  boy,  meet 
ing  us,  would  remark,  "  Bon  jour,  Monsieur  ;  le  chemin 
est  mauvais"  Good  morning,  sir ;  it  is  bad  walking. 
Sir  Francis  Head  says  that  the  immigrant  is  forward  to 
"  appreciate  the  happiness  of  living  in  a  land  in  which 
the  old  country's  servile  custom  of  touching  the  hat  does 
not  exist,"  but  he  was  thinking  of  Canada  West,  of 
course.  It  would,  indeed,  be  a  serious  bore  to  be  obliged 
to  touch  your  hat  several  times  a  day.  A  Yankee  has 
not  leisure  for  it. 

We  saw  peas,  and  even  beans,  collected  into  heaps  in 
the  fields.  The  former  are  an  important  crop  here,  and, 
I  suppose,  are  not  so  much  infested  by  the  weevil  as 
with  us.  There  were  plenty  of  apples,  very  fair  and 
sound,  by  the  roadside,  but  they  were  so  small  as  to 
suggest  the  origin  of  the  apple  in  the  crab.  There  was 
also  a  small  red  fruit  which  they  called  snells,  and 
another,  also  red  and  very  acid,  whose  name  a  little 
boy  wrote  for  me  "pinbena"  It  is  probably  the  same 
with,  or  similar  to,  the  pembina  of  the  voyageurs,  a  spe 
cies  of  viburnum,  which,  according  to  Richardson,  has 
given  its  name  to  many  of  the  rivers  of  Rupert's  Land. 
The  forest  trees  were  spruce,  arbor- vita3,  firs,  birches, 
beeches,  two  or  three  kinds  of  maple,  bass-wood,  wild- 
cherry,  aspens,  &c.,  but  no  pitch  pines  (Pinus  rigidd). 
I  saw  very  few,  if  any,  trees  which  had  been  set  out  for 


"  ST.  ANNE.  45 

shade  or  ornament.  The  water  was  commonly  running 
streams  or  springs  in  the  bank  by  the  roadside,  and  was 
excellent.  The  parishes  are  commonly  separated  by  a 
stream,  and  frequently  the  farms.  I  noticed  that  the 
fields  were  furrowed  or  thrown  into  beds  seven  or  eight 
feet  wide  to  dry  the  soil. 

At  the  Riviere  du  Sault  a  la  Puce,  which,  I  suppose, 
means  the  River  of  the  Fall  of  the  Flea,  was  advertised 
in  English,  as  the  sportsmen  are  English,  "  The  best 
Snipe-shooting  grounds,"  over  the  door  of  a  small  pub 
lic-house.  These  words  being  English  affected  me  as 
if  I  had  been  absent  now  ten  years  from  my  country, 
and  for  so  long  had  not  heard  the  sound  of  my  native 
language,  and  every  one  of  them  was  as  interesting  to 
me  as  if  I  had  been  a  snipe-shooter,  and  they  had  been 
snipes.  The  prunella  or  self-heal,  in  the  grass  here,  was 
an  old  acquaintance.  We  frequently  saw  the  inhabitants 
washing,  or  cooking  for  their  pigs,  and  in  one  place 
hackling  flax  by  the  roadside.  It  was  pleasant  to  see 
these  usually  domestic  operations  carried  on  out  of 
doors,  even  in  that  cold  country. 

At  twilight  we  reached  a  bridge  over  a  little  river, 
the  boundary  between  Chateau  Richer  and  St.  Anne, 
le  premier  pont  de  St.  Anne,  and  at  dark  the  church  of 
La  Bonne  St.  Anne.  Formerly  vessels  from  France, 
when  they  came  in  sight  of  this  church,  gave  "  a  general 
discharge  of  their  artillery,"  as  a  sign  of  joy  that  they 
had  escaped  all  the  dangers  of  the  river.  Though  all 
the  while  we  had  grand  views  of  the  adjacent  country 
far  up  and  down  the  river,  and,  for  the  most  part,  when 
we  turned  about,  of  Quebec  in  the  horizon  behind  us, 
and  we  never  beheld  it  without  new  surprise  and  admi 
ration  ;  yet,  throughout  our  walk,  the  Great  River  of 


46  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

Canada  on  our  right  hand  was  the  main  feature  in  the 
landscape,  and  this  expands  so  rapidly  below  the  Isle  of 
Orleans,  and  creates  such  a  breadth  of  level  horizon 
above  its  waters  in  that  direction,  that,  looking  down 
the  river  as  we  approached  the  extremity  of  that  island, 
the  St.  Lawrence  seemed  to  be  opening  into  the  ocean, 
though  we  were  still  about  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  miles  from  what  can  be  called  its  mouth.* 

When  we  inquired  here  for  a  maison  publique  we 
were  directed  apparently  to  that  private  house  where 
we  were  most  likely  to  find  entertainment.  There  .were 
no  guideboards  where  we  walked,  because  there  was 
but  one  road ;  there  were  no  shops  nor  signs,  because 
there  were  no  artisans  to  speak  of,  and  the  people  raised 
their  own  provisions;  and  there  were  no  taverns,  because 
there  were  no  travellers.  We  here  bespoke  lodging  and 
breakfast.  They  had,  as  usual,  a  large  old-fashioned, 
two-storied  box-stove  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  out  of 
which,  in  due  time,  there  was  sure  to  be  forthcoming  a 
supper,  breakfast,  or  dinner.  The  lower  half  held  the 
fire,  the  upper  the  hot  air,  and  as  it  was  a  cool  Canadian 
evening,  this  was  a,  comforting  sight  to  us.  Being  four 
or  five  feet  high  it  warmed  the  whole  person  as  you 
stood  by  it.  The  stove  was  plainly  a  very  important 
article  of  furniture  in  Canada,  and  was  not  set  aside 
during  the  summer.  Its  size,  and  the  respect  which  was 
paid  to  it,  told  of  the  severe  winters  which  it  had  seen 
and  prevailed  over.  The  master  of  the  house,  in  his 

*  From  McCulloch's  Geographical  Dictionary  we  learn  that  "im 
mediately  beyond  the  Island  of  Orleans  it  is  a  mile  broad;  where  the 
Sagueriay  joins  it,  eighteen  miles;  at  Point  Peter,  upwards  of  thirty; 
at  the  Bay  of  Seven  Islands,  seventy  miles;  and  at  the  Island  of 
Anticosti  (about  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Quebec)  it  rolls 
a  flood  into  the  ocean  nearly  one  hundred  miles  across." 


ST.  ANNE.  47 

long-pointed,  red  woollen  cap,  had  a  thoroughly  antique 
physiognomy  of  the  old  Norman  stamp.  He  might 
have  come  over  with  Jacques  Cartier.  His  was  the 
hardest  French  to  understand  of  any  we  had  heard  yet, 
for  there  was  a  great  difference  between  one  speaker 
and  another,  and  this  man  talked  with  a  pipe  in  his 
mouth  beside,  a  kind  of  tobacco  French.  I  asked  him 
what  he  called  his  dog.  He  shouted  Brock  !  (the  name 
of  the  breed).  We  like  to  hear  the  cat  called  min,  —  min ! 
min  !  min  !  I  inquired  if  we  could  cross  the  river  here 
to  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  thinking  to  return  that  way  when 
we  had  been  to  the  Falls.  He  answered, "  S'ilne  fait  pas 
un  trop  grand  vent?  If  there  is  not  too  much  wind.  They 
use  small  boats,  or  pirogues,  and  the  waves  are  often  too 
high  for  them.  He  wore,  as  usual,  something  between  a 
moccasin  and  a  boot,  which  he  called  botfes  Indiennes,  In 
dian  boots,  and  had  made  himself.  The  tops  were  of  calf 
or  sheep-skin,  and  the  soles  of  cowhide  turned  up  like  a 
mocassin.  They  were  yellow  or  reddish,  the  leather 
never  having  been  tanned  nor  colored.  The  women 
wore  the  same.  He  told  us  that  he  had  travelled  ten 
leagues  due  north  into  the  bush.  He  had  been  to  the 
Falls  of  St.  Anne,  and  said  that  they  were  more  beauti 
ful,  but  not  greater,  than  Montmorenci,  plus  beau,  mais 
non  plus  grand  que  Montmorenci.  As  soon  as  we  had 
retired,  the  family  commenced  their  devotions.  A  little 
boy  officiated,  and  for  a  long  time  we  heard  him  mut 
tering  over  his  prayers. 

In  the  morning,  after  a  breakfast  of  tea,  maple-sugar, 
bread  and  butter,  arid  what  I  suppose  is  called  potage 
(potatoes  and  meat  boiled  with  flour),  the  universal  dish 
as  we  found,  perhaps  the  national  one,  I  ran  over  to  the 
Church  of  La  Bonne  St.  Anne,  whose  matin  bell  we 


48  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

had  heard,  it  being  Sunday  morning.  Our  book  said 
that  this  church  had  "long  been  an  object  of  interest, 
from  the  miraculous  cures  said  to  have  been  wrought 
on  visitors  to  the  shrine."  There  was  a  profusion  of 
gilding,  and  I  counted  more  than  twenty-five  crutches 
suspended  on  the  walls,  some  for  grown  persons,  some 
for  children,  which  it  was  to  be  inferred  so  many  sick 
had  been  able  to  dispense  with ;  but  they  looked  as  if 
they  had  been  made  to  order  by  the  carpenter  who  made 
the  church.  There  were  one  or  two  villagers  at  their 
devotions  at  that  early  hour,  who  did  not  look  up,  but 
when  they  had  sat  a  long  time  with  their  little  book  be 
fore  the  picture  of  one  saint,  went  to  another.  Our 
whole  walk  was  through  a  thoroughly  Catholic  country, 
and  there  was  no  trace  of  any  other  religion.  I  doubt 
if  there  are  any  more  simple  and  unsophisticated  Cath 
olics  anywhere.  Emery  de  Caen,  Champlain's  contem 
porary,  told  the  Huguenot  sailors  that  "  Monseigneur, 
the  Duke  de  Ventadour  (Viceroy),  did  not  wish  that 
they  should  sing  psalms  in  the  Great  River." 

On  our  way  to  the  Falls,  we  met  the  habitans  coming 
to  the  Church  of  La  Bonne  St.  Anne,  walking  or  riding 
in  charettes  by  families.  I  remarked  that  they  were 
universally  of  small  stature.  The  toll-man  at  the  bridge 
over  the  St.  Anne  was  the  first  man  we  had  chanced  to 
meet,  since  we  left  Quebec,  who  could  speak  a  word  of 
English.  How  good  French  the  inhabitants  of  this  part 
of  Canada  speak,  I  am  not  competent  to  say;  I  only 
know  that  it  is  not  made  impure  by  being  mixed  with 
English.  I  do  not  know  why  it  should  not  be  as  good 
as  is  spoken  in  Normandy.  Charlevoix,  who  was  here 
a  hundred  years  ago,  observes,  "  The  French  language 
is  nowhere  spoken  with  greater  purity,  there  being  no 


ST.  ANNE.  49 

accent  perceptible  " ;  and  Potherie  said  "  they  had  no 
dialect,  which,  indeed,  is  generally  lost  in  a  colony." 

The  falls,  which  we  were  in  search  of,  are  three  miles 
up  the  St.  Anne.  We  followed  for  a  short  distance  a 
foot-path  up  the  east  bank  of  this  river,  through  hand 
some  sugar-maple  and  arbor-vitas  groves.  Having  lost 
the  path  which  led  to  a  house  where  we  were  to  get 
further  directions,  we  dashed  at  once  into  the  woods, 
steering  by  guess  and  by  compass,  climbing  directly 
through  woods,  a  steep  hill,  or  mountain,  five  or  six 
hundred  feet  high,  which  was,  in  fact,  only  the  bank  of 
the  St.  Lawrence.  Beyond  this  we  by  good  luck  fell 
into  another  path,  and  following  this  or  a  branch  of  it, 
at  our  discretion,  through  a  forest  consisting  of  large 
white  pines,  —  the  first  we  had  seen  in  our  walk,  —  we 
at  length  heard  the  roar  of  falling  water,  and  came  out 
at  the  head  of  the  Falls  of  St.  Anne.  We  had  de 
scended  into  a  ravine  or  cleft  in  the  mountain,  whose 
walls  rose  still  a  hundred  feet  above  us,  though  we  were 
near  its  top,  and  we  now  stood  on  a  very  rocky  shore, 
where  the  water  had  lately  flowed  a  dozen  feet  higher, 
as  appeared  by  the  stones  and  drift-wood,  and  large 
birches  twisted  and  splintered  as  a  farmer  twists  a 
withe.  Here  the  river,  one  or  two  hundred  feet  wide, 
came  flowing  rapidly  over  a  rocky  bed  out  of  that  in 
teresting  wilderness  which  stretches  toward  Hudson's 
Bay  and  Davis's  Straits.  Ha-ha  Bay,  on  the  Sague- 
nay,  was  about  one  hundred  miles  north  of  where  we 
stood.  Looking  on  the  map,  I  find  that  the  first  country 
on  the  north  which  bears  a  name  is  that  part  of  Ru 
pert's  Land  called  East  Main.  This  river,  called  after 
the  holy  Anne,  flowing  from  such  a  direction,  here  tum 
bled  over  a  precipice,  at  present  by  three  channels,  how 


50  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

far  down  I  do  not  know,  but  far  enough  for  all  our  pur 
poses,  and  to  as  good  a  distance  as  if  twice  as  far.  It 
matters  little  whether  you  cull  it  one,  or  two,  or  three 
hundred  feet ;  at  any  rate,  it  was  a  sufficient  Water- 
privilege  for  us.  I  crossed  the  principal  channel  di 
rectly  over  the  verge  of  the  fall,  where  it  was  con 
tracted  to  about  fifteen  feet  in  width  by  a  dead  tree, 
which  had  been  dropped  across  and  secured  in  a  cleft 
of  the  opposite  rock,  and  a  smaller  one  a  few  feet 
higher,  which  served  for  a  hand-rail.  This  bridge  was 
rotten  as  well  as  small  and  slippery,  being  stripped  of 
bark,  and  I  was  obliged  to  seize  a  moment  to  pass  when 
the  falling  water  did  not  surge  over  it,  and  mid-way, 
though  at  the  expense  of  wet  feet,  I  looked  down  proba 
bly  more  than  a  hundred  feet,  into  the  mist  and  foam 
below.  This  gave  me  the  freedom  of  an  island  of  pre 
cipitous  rock,  by  which  I  descended  as  by  giant  steps, 
the  rock  being  composed  of  large  cubical  masses,  clothed 
with  delicate  close-hugging  lichens  of  various  colors,  kept 
fresh  and  bright  by  the  moisture,  till  I  viewed  the  first 
fall  from  the  front,  and  looked  down  still  deeper  to 
where  the  second  and  third  channels  fell  into  a  remark 
ably  large  circular  basin  worn  in  the  stone.  The  falling 
water  seemed  to  jar  the  very  rocks,  and  the  noise  to  be 
ever  increasing.  The  vista  down  stream  was  through  a 
narrow  and  deep  cleft  in  the  mountain,  all  white  suds  at 
the  bottom ;  but  a  sudden  angle  in  this  gorge  prevented 
my  seeing  through  to  the  bottom  of  the  fall.  Returning 
to  the  shore,  I  made  my  way  down  stream  through  the 
forest  to  see  how  far  the  fall  extended,  and  how  the 
river  came  out  of  that  adventure.  It  was  to  clamber 
along  the  side  of  a  precipitous  mountain  of  loose  mossy 
rocks,  covered  with  a  damp  primitive  forest,  and  termi- 


ST.  ANNE.  51 

nating  at  the  bottom  in  an  abrupt  precipice  over  the 
stream.  This  was  the  east  side  of  the  fall.  At  length, 
after  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  I  got  down  to  still  water,  and, 
on  looking  up  through  the  winding  gorge,  I  could  just 
see  to  the  foot  of  the  fall  which  I  had  before  examined ; 
while  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  stream,  here  much 
contracted,  rose  a  perpendicular  wall,  I  will  not  venture 
to  say  how  many  hundred  feet,  but  only  that  it  was  the 
highest  perpendicular  wall  of  bare  rock  that  I  ever  saw. 
In  front  of  me  tumbled  in  from  the  summit  of  the  cliff  a 
tributary  stream,  making  a  beautiful  cascade,  which  was 
a  remarkable  fall  in  itself,  and  there  was  a  cleft  in  this 
precipice,  apparently  four  or  five  feet  wide,  perfectly 
straight  up  and  down  from  top  to  bottom,  which,  from 
its  cavernous  depth  and  darkness,  appeared  merely  as  a 
Hack  streak.  This  precipice  is  not  sloped,  nor  is  the 
material  soft  and  crumbling  slate  as  at  Montmorenci, 
but  it  rises  perfectly  perpendicular,  like  the  side  of  a 
mountain  fortress,  and  is  cracked  into  vast  cubical 
masses  of  gray  and  black  rock  shining  with  moisture, 
as  if  it  were  the  ruin  of  an  ancient  wall  built  by  Titans. 
Birches,  spruces,  mountain-ashes  with  their  bright  red 
berries,  arbor-vitaes,  white  pines,  alders,  &c.,  overhung 
this  chasm  on  the  very  verge  of  the  cliff  and  in  the 
crevices,  and  here  and  there  were  buttresses  of  rock 
supporting  trees  part  way  down,  yet  so  as  to  enhance, 
not  injure,  the  effect  of  the  bare  rock.  Take  it  alto 
gether,  it  was  a  most  wild  and  rugged  and  stupendous 
chasm,  so  deep  and  narrow  where  a  river  had  worn  it 
self  a  passage  through  a  mountain  of  rock,  and  all 
around  was  the  comparatively  untrodden  wilderness. 

This  was  the  limit  of  our  walk  down  the  St.  Law 
rence.     Early  in  the  afternoon  we  began  to  retrace  our 


52  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

steps,  not  being  able  to  cross  the  north  channel  and  re 
turn  by  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  on  account  of  the  trop  grand 
vent,  or  too  great  wind.  Though  the  waves  did  run 
pretty  high,  it  was  evident  that  the  inhabitants  of  Mont- 
morenci  County  were  no  sailors,  and  made  but  little  use 
of  the  river.  When  we  reached  the  bridge,  between 
St.  Anne  and  Chateau  Richer,  I  ran  back  a  little  way 
to  ask  a  man  in  the  field  the  name  of  the  river  which 
we  were  crossing,  but  for  a  long  time  I  could  not  make 
out  what  he  said,  for  he  was  one  of  the  more  unintelli 
gible  Jacques  Carder  men.  At  last  it  flashed  upon  me 
that  it  was  La  Riviere  au  Chien,  or  the  Dog  River, 
which  my  eyes  beheld,  which  brought  to  my  mind  the 
life  of  the  Canadian  voyageur  and  coureur  de  bois,  a 
more  western  and  wilder  Arcadia,  me  thinks,  than  the 
world  has  ever  seen  ;  for  the  Greeks,  with  all  their 
wood  and  river  gods,  were  not  so  qualified  to  name  the 
natural  features  of  a  country,  as  the  ancestors  of  these 
French  Canadians  ;  and  if  any  people  had  a  right  to 
substitute  their  own  for  the  Indian  names,  it  was  they. 
They  have  preceded  the  pioneer  on  our  own  frontiers, 
and  named  the  prairie  for  us.  La  Riviere  au  Chien 
cannot,  by  any  license  of  language,  be  translated  into 
Dog  River,  for  that  is  not  such  a  giving  it  to  the  dogs, 
and  recognizing  their  place  in  creation  as  the  French 
implies.  One  of  the  tributaries  of  the  St.  Anne  is  named 
La  Riviere  de  la  Rose  ;  and  farther  east  are,  La  Riviere 
de  la  Blondelle,  and  La  Riviere  de  la  Friponne.  Their 
very  riviere  meanders  more  than  our  river. 

Yet  the  impression  which  this  country  made  on  me 
was  commonly  different  from  this.  To  a  traveller  from 
the  Old  World,  Canada  East  may  appear  like  a  new 
country,  and  its  inhabitants  like  colonists,  but  to  me, 


ST.  ANNE.  53 

coming  from  New  England,  and  being  a  very  green 
traveller  withal,  —  notwithstanding  what  I  have  said 
about  Hudson's  Bay,  —  it  appeared  as  old  as  Normandy 
itself,  and  realized  much  that  I  had  heard  of  Europe 
arid  the  Middle  Ages.  Even  the  names  of  humble 
Canadian  villages  affected  me  as  if  they  had  been  those 
of  the  renowned  cities  of  antiquity.  To  be  told  by  a 
habitan,  when  I  asked  the  name  of  a  village  in  sight, 
that  it  is  St.  Fereole  or  St.  Anne,  the  Guardian  Angel 
or  the  Holy  Joseph's  ;  or  of  a  mountain,  that  it  was 
Selange  or  St.  Hyacinthe  !  As  soon  as  you  leave  the 
States,  these  saintly  names  begin.  St.  John  is  the  first 
town  you  stop  at  (fortunately  we  did  not  see  it),  and 
thenceforward,  the  names  of  the  mountains,  and  streams, 
and  villages  reel,  if  I  may  so  speak,  with  the  intoxi 
cation  of  poetry ;  —  ChamUy,  Longueil,  Pointe  aux 
Trembles,  Bartholomy,  &c.,  &c. ;  as  if  it  needed  only  a 
little  foreign  accent,  a  few  more  liquids  and  vowels  per 
chance  in  the  language,  to  make  us  locate  our  ideals  at 
once.  I  began  to  dream  of  Provence  and  the  Trouba 
dours,  and  of  places  and  things  which  have  no  existence 
on  the  earth.  They  veiled  the  Indian  and  the  primitive 
forest,  and  the  woods  toward  Hudson's  Bay,  were  only 
as  the  forests  of  France  and  Germany.  I  could  not  at 
once  bring  myself  to  believe  that  the  inhabitants  who 
pronounced  daily  those  beautiful  and,  to  me,  significant 
names,  lead  as  prosaic  lives  as  we  of  New  England.  In 
short,  the  Canada  which  I  saw  was  not  merely  a  placo 
for  railroads  to  terminate  in  and  for  criminals  to  run  to. 
When  I  asked  the  man  to  whom  I  have  referred,  if 
there  were  any  falls  on  the  Riviere  au  Chien,  —  for  I  saw 
that  it  came  over  the  same  high  bank  with  the  Montmo- 
renci  and  St.  Anne,  —  he  answered  that  there  were. 


54  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

How  far  ?  I  inquired.  Trois  quatres  lieue.  How  high  ? 
Je  pense,  quatre-vingt-dix  pieds  ;  that  is,  ninety  feet.  We 
turned  aside  to  look  at  the  falls  of  the  Riviere  du  Sault 
a  la  Pace,  half  a  mile  from  the  road,  which  before  we 
had  passed  in  our  haste  and  ignorance,  and  we  pro 
nounced  them  as  beautiful  as  any  that  we  saw ;  yet 
they  seemed  to  make  no  account  of  them  there,  and, 
when  first  we  inquired  the  way  to  the  Falls,  directed  us 
to  Montmorenci,  seven  miles  distant.  It  was  evident 
that  this  was  the  country  for  waterfalls  ;  that  every 
stream  that  empties  into  the  St.  Lawrence,  for  some 
hundreds  of  miles,  must  have  a  great  fall  or  cascade  on 
it,  and  in  its  passage  through  the  mountains  was,  for  a 
short  distance,  a  small  Saguenay,  with  its  upright  walls. 
This  fall  of  La  Puce,  the  least  remarkable  of  the  four 
which  we  visited  in  this  vicinity,  we  had  never  heard  of 
till  we  came  to  Canada,  and  yet,  so  far  as  I  know,  there 
is  nothing  of  the  kind  in  New  England  to  be  compared 
with  it.  Most  travellers  in  Canada  would  not  hear  of  it, 
though  they  might  go  so  near  as  to  hear  it.  Since  my 
return  I  find  that  in  the  topographical  description  of  the 
country  mention  is  made  of  "  two  or  three  romantic 
falls  "  on  this  stream,  though  we  saw  and  heard  of  but 
this  one.  Ask  the  inhabitants  respecting  any  stream,  if 
there  is  a  fall  on  it,  and  they  will  perchance  tell  you  of 
something  as  interesting  as  Bashpishror  the  Catskill, 
which  no  traveller  has  ever  seen,  or  if  they  have  not 
found  it,  you  may  possibly  trace  up  the  stream  and  dis 
cover  it  yourself.  Falls  there  are  a  drug ;  and  we  be 
came  quite  dissipated  in  respect  to  them.  We  had 
drank  too  much  of  them.  Beside  these  which  I  have 
referred  to,  there  are  a  thousand  other  falls  on  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  its  tributaries  which  I  have  not  seen  nor 


ST.  ANNE.  55 

heard  of;  and  above  all  there  is  one  which  I  have  heard 
of,  called  Niagara,  so  that  I  think  that  this  river  must  be 
the  most  remarkable  for  its  falls  of  any  in  the  world. 

At  a  house  near  the  western  boundary  of  Chateau 
Richer,  whose  master  was  said  to  speak  a  very  little 
English,  having  recently  lived  at  Quebec,  we  got  lodg 
ing  for  the  night.  As  usual,  we  had  to  go  down  a  lane 
to  get  round  to  the  south  side  of  the  house  where  the 
door  was,  away  from  the  road.  For  these  Canadian 
houses  have  no  front  door,  properly  speaking.  Every 
part  is  for  the  use  of  the  occupant  exclusively,  and  no 
part  has  reference  to  the  traveller  or  to  travel.  Every 
New  England  house,  on  the  contrary,  has  a  front  and 
principal  door  opening  to  the  great  world,  though  it  may 
be  on  the  cold  side,  for  it  stands  on  the  highway  of  na 
tions,  and  the  road  which  runs  by  it  comes  from  the  Old 
World  and  goes  to  the  far  West ;  but  the  Canadian's 
door  opens  into  his  back-yard  and  farm  alone,  and  the 
road  which  runs  behind  his  house  leads  only  from  the 
church  of  one  saint  to  that  of  another.  We  found  a 
large  family,  hired  men,  wife  and  children,  just  eating 
their  supper.  They  prepared  some  for  us  afterwards. 
The  hired  men  were  a  merry  crew  of  short,  black-eyed 
fellows,  and  the  wife  a  thin-faced,  sharp-featured  French 
Canadian  woman.  Our  host's  English  staggered  us 
rather  more  than  any  French  we  had  heard  yet ;  indeed, 
we  found  that  even  we  spoke  better  French  than  he  did 
English,  and  we  concluded  that  a  less  crime  would  be 
committed  on  the  whole  if  we  spoke  French  with  him, 
and  in  no  respect  aided  or  abetted  his  attempts  to  speak 
English.  We  had  a  long  and  merry  chat  with  the  fam 
ily  this  Sunday  evening  in  their  spacious  kitchen.  While 
my  companion  smoked  a  pipe  and  paiiez-vous'd  with  one 


56  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

party,  I  parleyed  and  gesticulated  to  another.  The 
whole  family  was  enlisted,  and  I  kept  a  little  girl  writ 
ing  what  was  otherwise  unintelligible.  The  geography 
getting  obscure,  we  called  for  chalk,  and  the  greasy 
oiled  table-cloth  having  been  wiped,  —  for  it  needed  no 
French,  but  only  a  sentence  from  the  universal  language 
of  looks  on  my  part,  to  indicate  that  it  needed  it,  —  we 
drew  the  St.  Lawrence,  with  its  parishes,  thereon,  and 
thenceforward  went  on  swimmingly,  by  turns  handling 
the  chalk  and  committing  to  the  table-cloth  what  would 
otherwise  have  been  left  in  a  limbo  of  unintelligibility. 
This  was  greatly  to  the  entertainment  of  all  parties.  I 
was  amused  to  hear  how  much  use  they  made  of  the 
word  oui  in  conversation  with  one  another.  After  re 
peated  single  insertions  of  it,  one  would  suddenly  throw 
back  his  head  at  the  same  time  with  his  chair,  and  ex 
claim  rapidly,  "oui!  oui!  oui!  oui!"  like  a  Yankee 
driving  pigs.  Our  host  told  us  that  the  farms  there 
abouts  were  generally  two  acres,  or  three  hundred  and 
sixty  French  feet  wide,  by  one  and  a  half  leagues,  (?) 
or  a  little  more  than  four  and  a  half  of  our  miles  deep. 
This  use  of  the  word  acre  as  long  measure  arises  from 
the  fact  that  the  French  acre  or  arpent,  the  arpent  of 
Paris,  makes  a  square  of  ten  perches,  of  eighteen  feet 
each  on  a  side,  a  Paris  foot  being  equal  to  1.06575 
English  feet.  He  said  that  the  wood  was  cut  off  about 
one  mile  from  the  river.  The  rest  was  "  bush,"  and 
beyond  that  the  "  Queen's  bush."  Old  as  the  country 
is,  each  landholder  bounds  on  the  primitive  forest,  and 
fuel  bears  no  price.  As  I  had  forgotten  the  French  for 
sickle,  they  went  out  in  the  evening  to  the  barn  and  got 
one,  and  so  clenched  the  certainty  of  our  understanding 
one  another.  Then,  wishing  to  learn  if  they  used  the 


ST.  ANNE.  57 

cradle,  and  not  knowing  any  French  word  for  this  in 
strument,  I  set  up  the  knives  and  forks  on  the  blade  of 
the  sickle  to  represent  one ;  at  which  they  all  exclaimed 
that  they  knew  and  had  used  it.  When  snells  were 
mentioned  they  went  out  in  the  dark  and  plucked  some. 
They  were  pretty  good.  They  said  they  had  three 
kinds  of  plums  growing  wild,  —  blue,  white,  and  red, 
the  two  former  much  alike  and  the  best.  Also  they 
asked  me  if  I  would  have  des  pommes,  some  apples, 
and  got  me  some.  They  were  exceedingly  fair  and 
glossy,  and  it  was  evident  that  there  was  no  worm  in 
them ;  but  they  were  as  hard  almost  as  a  stone,  as  if  the 
season  was  too  short  to  mellow  them.  We  had  seen  no 
soft  and  yellow  apples  by  the  roadside.  I  declined 
eating  one,  much  as  I  admired  it,  observing  that  it 
would  be  good  dans  le  pr  in  temps,  in  the  spring.  In  the 
morning  when  the  mistress  had  set  the  eggs  a-frying 
she  nodded  to  a  thick-set,  jolly-looking  fellow,  who  rolled 
up  his  sleeves,  seized  the  long-handled  griddle,  and  com 
menced  a  series  of  revolutions  and  evolutions  with  it, 
ever  and  anon  tossing  its  contents  into  the  air,  where 
they  turned  completely  topsy-turvy  and  came  down 
t'  other  side  up ;  and  this  he  repeated  till  they  were 
done.  That  appeared  to  be  his  duty  when  eggs  were 
concerned.  I  did  not  chance  to  witness  this  perform 
ance,  but  my  companion  did,  and  he  pronounced  it  a 
master-piece  in  its  way.  This  man's  farm,  with  the 
buildings,  cost  seven  hundred  pounds  ;  some  smaller 
ones,  two  hundred. 

In  1827,  Montmorenci  County,  to  which  the  Isle  of 
Orleans  has  since  been  added,  was  nearly  as  large  as 
Massachusetts,  being  the  eighth  county  out  of  forty  (in 
Lower  Canada)  in  extent ;  but  by  far  the  greater  part 

3* 


58  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

still  must  continue  to  be  waste  land,  lying,  as  it  were, 
under  the  walls  of  Quebec. 

I  quote  these  old  statistics,  not  merely  because  of 
the  difficulty  of  obtaining  more  recent  ones,  but  also 
because  I  saw  there  so  little  evidence  of  any  recent 
growth.  There  were  in  this  county,  at  the  same 
date,  five  Roman  Catholic  churches,  and  no  others, 
five  cure's  and  five  presbyteries,  two  schools,  two  corn- 
mills,  four  saw-mills,  one  carding-mill,  —  no  medical 
man,  or  notary  or  lawyer,  —  five  shopkeepers,  four 
taverns  (we  saw  no  sign  of  any,  though,  after  a  little 
hesitation,  we  were  sometimes  directed  to  some  undis 
tinguished  hut  as  such),  thirty  artisans,  and  five  river 
crafts,  whose  tonnage  amounted  to  sixty-nine  tons  ! 
This,  notwithstanding  that  it  has  a  frontage  of  more 
than  thirty  miles  on  the  river,  and  the  population  is 
almost  wholly  confined  to  its  banks.  This  describes 
nearly  enough  what  we  saw.  But  double  some  of  these 
figures,  which,  however,  its  growth  will  not  warrant,  and 
you  have  described  a  poverty  which  not  even  its  severity 
of  climate  and  ruggedness  of  soil  will  suffice  to  account 
for.  The .  principal  productions  were  wheat,  potatoes, 
oats,  hay,  peas,  flax,  maple-sugar,  &c.,  &c. ;  linen,  cloth, 
or  etoffe  du  pays,  flannel,  and  homespun,  or  petite  etoffe. 

In  Lower  Canada;  according  to  Bouchette,  there  are 
two  tenures,  —  the  feudal  and  the  socage.  Tenanciers, 
censitaires,  or  holders  of  land  en  roture,  pay  a  small 
annual  rent  to  the  seigneurs,  to  which  "  is  added  some 
article  of  provision,  such  as  a  couple  of  fowls,  or  a  goose, 
or  a  bushel  of  wheat."  "  They  are  also  bound  to  grind 
their  corn  at  the  moulin  banal,  or  the  lord's  mill,  where 
one  fourteenth  part  of  it  is  taken  for  his  use  "  as  toll. 
lie  says  that  the  toll  is  one  twelfth  in  the  United  States, 


ST.  ANNE.  59 

where  competition  exists.  It  is  not  permitted  to  exceed 
one  sixteenth  in  Massachusetts.  But  worse  than  this 
monopolizing  of  mill  rents  is  what  are  called  lods  et 
ventes,  or  mutation  fines.  According  to  which  the  seig 
neur  has  "  a  right  to  a  twelfth  part  of  the  purchase- 
money  of  every  estate  within  his  seigniory  that  changes 
its  owner  by  sale."  This  is  over  and  above  the  sum 
paid  to  the  seller.  In  such  cases,  moreover,  "  the  lord 
possesses  the  droit  de  retrait,  which  is  the  privilege  of 
pre-emption  at  the  highest  bidden  price  within  forty 
days  after  the  sale  has  taken  place,"  —  a  right  which, 
however,  is  said  to  be  seldom  exercised.  "  Lands  held 
by  Roman  Catholics  are  further  subject  to  the  payment 
to  their  curates  of  one  twenty-sixth  part  of  all  the  grain 
produced  upon  them,  and  to  occasional  assessments  for 
building  and  repairing  churches,"  &c.,  —  a  tax  to  which 
they  are  not  subject  if  the  proprietors  change  their  faith; 
but  they  are  not  the  less  attached  to  their  church  in  con 
sequence.  There  are,  however,  various  modifications  of 
the  feudal  tenure.  Under  the  socage  tenure,  which  is 
that  of  the  townships  or  more  recent  settlements,  Eng 
lish,  Irish,  Scotch,  and  others,  and  generally  of  Canada 
West,  the  landholder  is  wholly  unshackled  by  such  con 
ditions  as  I.  have  quoted,  and  "  is  bound  to  no  other  obli 
gations  than  those  of  allegiance  to  the  king  and  obedi 
ence  to  the  laws."  Throughout  Canada  "  a  freehold  of 
forty  shillings  yearly  value,  or  the  payment  of  ten 
pounds  rent  annually,  is  the  qualification  for  voters." 
In  184G  more  than  one  sixth  of  the  whole  population  of 
Canada  East  were  qualified  to  vote  for  members  of  Par 
liament,  —  a  greater  proportion  than  enjoy  a  similar 
privilege  in  the  United  States. 

The  population  which  we  had  seen  the  last  two  days, 


60  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

—  I  mean  the  habitans  of  Montmorenci  County,  —  ap 
peared  very  inferior,  intellectually  and  even  physically, 
to  that  of  New  England.  In  some  respects  they  were 
incredibly  filthy.  It  was  evident  that  they  had  not  ad 
vanced  since  the  settlement  of  the  country,  that  they 
were  quite  behind  the  age,  and  fairly  represented  their 
ancestors  in  Normandy  a  thousand  years  ago.  Even  in 
respect  to  the  common  arts  of  life,  they  are  not  so  far 
advanced  as  a  frontier  town  in  the  West  three  years 
old.  They  have  no  money  invested  in  railroad  stock, 
and  probably  never  will  have.  If  they  have  got  a 
French  phrase  for  a  railroad,  it  is  as  much  as  you  can 
expect  of  them.  They  are  very  far  from  a  revolution ; 
have  no  quarrel  with  Church  or  State,  but  their  vice  and 
their  virtue  is  content.  As  for  annexation,  they  have 
never  dreamed  of  it ;  indeed,  they  have  not  a  clear  idea 
what  or  where  the  States  are.  The  English  govern 
ment  has  been  remarkably  liberal  to  its  Catholic  sub 
jects  in  Canada,  permitting  them  to  wear  their  own 
fetters,  both  political  and  religious,  as  far  as  was  possible 
for  subjects.  Their  government  is  even  too  good  for 
them.  Parliament  passed  "an  act  [in  1825]  to  provide 
for  the  extinction  of  feudal  and  seigniorial  rights  and 
burdens  on  lands  in  Lower  Canada,  and  for  the  gradual 
conversion  of  those  tenures  into  the  tenure  of  free  and 
common  socage,"  &c.  But  as  late  as  1831,  at  least,  the 
design  of  the  act  was  likely  to  be  frustrated,  owing  to 
the  reluctance  of  the  seigniors  and  peasants.  It  has 
been  observed  by  another  that  the  French  Canadians  do 
not  extend  nor  perpetuate  their  influence.  The  British, 
Irish,  and  other  immigrants,  who  have  settled  the  town 
ships,  are  found  to  have  imitated  the  American  settlers, 
and  not  the  French.  They  reminded  me  in  this  of  the 


ST.  ANNE.  61 

Indians,  whom  they  were  slow  to  displace  and  to  whose 
habits  of  life  they  themselves  more  readily  conformed 
than  the  Indians  to  theirs.  The  Governor- General 
Denouville  remarked,  in  1685,  that  some  had  long 
thought  that  it  was  necessary  to  bring  the  Indians  near 
them  in  order  to  Frenchify  (franciser)  them,  but  that 
they  had  every  reason  to  think  themselves  in  an  error ; 
for  those  who  had  come  near  them  and  were  even  col 
lected  in  villages  in  the  midst  of  the  colony  had  not 
become  French,  but  the  French,  who  had  haunted  them, 
had  become  savages.  Kalrn  said:  "Though  many  nations 
imitate  the  French  customs,  yet  I  observed,  on  the  con 
trary,  that  the  French  in  Canada,  in  many  respects,  fol 
low  the  customs  of  the  Indians,  with  whom  they  converse 
every  day.  They  make  use  of  the  tobacco-pipes,  shoes, 
garters,  and  girdles  of  the  Indians.  They  follow  the 
Indian  way  of  making  war  with  exactness ;  they  mix 
the  same  things  with  tobacco  (he  might  have  said  that 
both  French  and  English  learned  the  use  itself  of  this 
weed  of  the  Indian)  ;  they  make  use  of  the  Indian  bark- 
boats,  and  row  them  in  the  Indian  way ;  they  wrap 
square  pieces  of  cloth  round  their  feet  instead  of  stock 
ings  ;  and  have  adopted  many  other  Indian  fashions." 
Thus,  while  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  are  teach 
ing  the  English  to  make  pegged  boots,  the  descendants 
of  the  French  in  Canada  are  wearing  the  Indian  moc 
casin  still.  The  French,  to  their  credit  be  it  said,  to  a 
certain  extent  respected  the  Indians  as  a  separate  and 
independent  people,  and  spoke  of  them  and  contrasted 
themselves  with  them  as  the  English  have  never  done. 
They  not  only  went  to  war  with  them  as  allies,  but  they 
lived  at  home  with  them  as  neighbors.  In  1627  the 
French  king  declared  "  that  the  descendants  of  the 


62  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

French,  settled  in  "  New  France,  "  and  the  savages  who 
should  be  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  faith,  and 
should  make  profession  of  it,  should  be  counted  and 
reputed  French  born  (Naturels  Frangois)  ;  and  as  such 
could  emigrate  to  France,  when  it  seemed  good  to  them, 
and  there  acquire,  will,  inherit,  &c.,  &c.,  without  obtain 
ing  letters  of  naturalization."  When  the  English  had 
possession  of  Quebec,  in  1630,  the  Indians,  attempting  to 
practise  the  same  familiarity  with  them  that  they  had 
with  the  French,  were  driven  out  of  their  houses  with 
blows  ;  which  accident  taught  them  a  difference  be 
tween  the  two  races,  and  attached  them  yet  more  to  the 
French.  The  impression  made  on  me  was,  that  the 
French  Canadians  were  even  sharing  the  fate  of  the  In 
dians,  or  at  least  gradually  disappearing  in  what  is  called 
the  Saxon  current. 

The  English  did  not  come  to  America  from  a  mere 
love  of  adventure,  nor  to  truck  with  or  convert  the  sav 
ages,  nor  to  hold  offices  under  the  crown,  as  the  French 
to  a  great  extent  did,  but  to  live  in  earnest  and  with 
freedom.  The  latter  overran  a  great  extent  of  country, 
selling  strong  water,  and  collecting  its  furs,  and  convert 
ing  its  inhabitants,  —  or  at  least  baptizing  its  dying 
infants  (enfans  moribonds),  —  without  improving  it. 
First,  went  the  coureur  de  bois  with  the  eau  de  vie;  then 
followed,  if  he  did  not  precede,  the  heroic  missionary 
with  the  eau  d'immortalite.  It  was  freedom  to  hunt, 
and  fish,  and  convert,  not  to  work,  that  they  sought. 
Hontan  says  that  the  coureurs  de  bois  lived  like  sailors 
ashore.  In  no  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  could 
the  French  be  said  to  have  had  a  foothold  in  Canada ; 
they  held  only  by  the  fur  of  the  wild  animals  which 
they  were  exterminating.  To  enable  the  poor  seigneurs 


ST.  ANNE.  63 

to  get  their  living,  it  was  permitted  by  a  decree  passed 
in  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  in  1685,  "to  all 
nobles  and  gentlemen  settled  in  Canada,  to  engage  in 
commerce,  without  being  called  to  account  or  reputed 
to  have  done  anything  derogatory."  The  reader  can 
infer  to  what  extent  they  had  engaged  in  agriculture, 
and  how  their  farms  must  have  shone  by  this  time. 
The  New  England  youth,  on  the  other  hand,  were  never 
coureurs  de  bois  nor  voyageurs,  but  backwoodsmen  and 
sailors  rather.  Of  all  nations  the  English  undoubtedly 
have  proved  hitherto  that  they  had  the  most  business 
here. 

Yet  I  am  not  sure  but  I  have  most  sympathy 
with  that  spirit  of  adventure  which  distinguished  the 
French  and  Spaniards  of  those  days,  and  made  them 
especially  the  explorers  of  the  American  Continent,  — 
which  so  early  carried  the  former  to  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Mississippi  on  the  north,  and  the  latter  to  the 
same  rfver  on  the  south.  It  was  long  before  our  fron 
tiers  reached  their  settlements  in  the  West.  So  far  as 
inland  discovery  was  concerned,  the  adventurous  spirit 
of  the  English  was  that  of  sailors  who  land  but  for  a 
day,  and  their  enterprise  the  enterprise  of  traders. 

There  was  apparently  a  greater  equality  of  condition 
among  the  habitans  of  Montmorenci  County  than  in 
New  England.  They  are  an  almost  exclusively  agri 
cultural,  and  so  far  independent,  population,  each  fam 
ily  producing  nearly  all  the  necessaries  of  life  for  itself. 
If  the  Canadian  wants  energy,  perchance  he  possesses 
those  virtues,  social  and  others,  which  the  Yankee  lacks, 
in  which  case  he  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  poor  man. 


64  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    WALLS     OF    QUEBEC. 

AFTER  spending  the  night  at  a  farm-house  in  Chateau- 
Richer,  about  a  dozen  miles  northeast  of  Quebec,  we 
set  out  on  our  return  to  the  city.  We  stopped  at  the 
next  house,  a  picturesque  old  stone  mill,  over  the  Ghi- 
pre,  —  for  so  the  name  sounded,  —  such  as  you  will 
nowhere  see  in  the  States,  and  asked  the  millers  the  age 
of  the  mill.  They  went  up  stairs  to  call  the  master ; 
but  the  crabbed  old  miser  asked  why  we  wanted  to 
know,  and  would  tell  us  only  for  some  compensation. 
I  wanted  French  to  give  him  a  piece  of  my  mind.  I 
had  got  enough  to  talk  on  a  pinch,  but  not  to  quarrel ; 
so  I  had  to  come  away,  looking  all  I  would  have  said. 
This  was  the  utmost  incivility  we  met  with  in  Canada. 
In  Beauport,  within  a  few  miles  of  Quebec,  we  turned 
aside  to  look  at  a  church  which  was  just  being  com 
pleted, — a  very  large  and  handsome  edifice  of  stone,  with 
a  green  bough  stuck  in  its  gable,  of  some  significance  to 
Catholics.  The  comparative  wealth  of  the  Church  in 
this  country  was  apparent ;  for  in  this  village  we  did  not 
see  one  good  house  besides.  They  were  all  humble  cot 
tages  ;  and  yet  this  appeared  to  me  a  more  imposing 
structure  than  any  church  in  Boston.  But  I  am  no 
judge  of  these  things. 

Re-entering  Quebec  through  St.  John's  Gate,  we  took 
a  caleche  in  Market  Square  for  the  Falls  of  the  Chau- 
diere,  about  nine  miles  southwest  of  the  city,  for  which 
we  were  to  pay  so  much,  beside  forty  sous  for  tolls.  The 
driver,  as  usual,  spoke  French  only.  The  number  of 


THE  WALLS  OF  QUEBEC.  65 

these  vehicles  is  very  great  for  so  small  a  town.  They 
are  like  one  of  our  chaises  that  has  lost  its  top,  only 
stouter  and  longer  in  the  body,  with  a  seat  for  the  driver 
where  the  dasher  is  with  us,  and  broad  leather  ears  on 
each  side  to  protect  the  riders  from  the  wheel  and  keep 
children  from  falling  out.  They  had  an  easy  jaunting 
look,  which,  as  our  hours  were  numbered,  persuaded  us 
to  be  riders.  We  met  with  them  on  every  road  near 
Quebec  these  days,  each  with  its  complement  of  two  in 
quisitive-looking  foreigners  and  a  Canadian  driver,  the 
former  evidently  enjoying  their  novel  experience,  for 
commonly  it  is  only  the  horse  whose  language  you  do 
not  understand  ;  but  they  were  one  remove  further  from 
him  by  the  intervention  of  an  equally  unintelligible 
driver.  We  crossed  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Point  Levi 
in  a  French-Canadian  ferry-boat,  which  was  incon 
venient  and  dirty,  and  managed  with  great  noise  and 
bustle.  The  current  was  very  strong  and  tumultuous, 
and  the  boat  tossed  enough  to  make  some  sick,  though  it 
was  only  a  mile  across ;  yet  the  wind  was  not  to  be  com 
pared  with  that  of  the  day  before,  and  we  saw  that  the 
Canadians  had  a  good  excuse  for  not  taking  us  over  to 
the  Isle  of  Orleans  in  a  pirogue,  however  shiftless  they 
may  be  for  not  having  provided  any  other  conveyance. 
The  route  which  we  took  to  the  Chaudiere  did  not  af 
ford  us  those  views  of  Quebec  which  we  had  expected, 
and  the  country  and  inhabitants  appeared  less  interesting 
to  a  traveller  than  those  we  had  seen.  The  Falls  of  the 
Chaudiere  are  three  miles  from  its  mouth  on  the  south 
side  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Though  they  were  the  largest 
which  I  saw  in  Canada,  I  was  not  proportionately  inter 
ested  by  them,  probably  from  satiety.  I  did  not  see  any 
peculiar  propriety  in  the  name  Chaudiere^  or  caldron.  I 


66  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

saw  here  the  most  brilliant  rainbow  that  I  ever  imagined. 
It  was  just  across  the  stream  below  the  precipice,  formed 
on  the  mist  which  this  tremendous  fall  produced ;  and  I 
stood  on  a  level  with  the  key-stone  of  its  arch.  It  was 
not  a  few  faint  prismatic  colors  merely,  but  a  full  semi 
circle,  only  four  or  five  rods  in  ^diameter,  though  as  wide 
as  usual,  so  intensely  bright  as  to  pain  the  eye,  and  ap 
parently  as  substantial  as  an  arch  of  stone.  It  changed 
its  position  and  colors  as  we  moved,  and  was  the  brighter 
because  the  sun  shone  so  clearly  and  the  mist  was  so 
thick.  Evidently  a  picture  painted  on  mist  for  the  men 
and  animals  that  came  to  the  falls  to  look  at ;  but  for 
what  special  purpose  beyond  this,  I  know  not.  At  the 
farthest  point  in  this  ride,  and  when  most  inland,  unex 
pectedly  at  a  turn  in  the  road  we  descried  the  frowning 
citadel  of  Quebec  in  the  horizon,  like  the  beak  of  a  bird 
of  prey.  We  returned  by  the  river-road  under  the  bank, 
which  is  very  high,  abrupt,  and  rocky.  When  we  were 
opposite  to  Quebec,  I  was  surprised  to  see  that  in  the 
Lower  Town,  under  the  shadow  of  the  rock,  the  lamps 
were  lit,  twinkling  not  unlike  crystals  in  a  cavern,  while 
the  citadel  high  above,  and  we,  too,  on  the  south  shore, 
were  in  broad  daylight.  As  we  were  too  late  for  the 
ferry-boat  that  night,  we  put  up  at  a  maison  de  pension 
at  Point  Levi.  The  usual  two-story  stove  was  here 
placed  against  an  opening  in  the  partition  shaped  like 
a  fireplace,  and  so  warmed  several  rooms.  We  could 
not  understand  their  French  here  very  well,  but  the 
potage  was  just  like  what  we  had  had  before.  There 
were  many  small  chambers  with  doorways  but  no  doors. 
The  walls  of  our  chamber,  all  around  and  overhead, 
were  neatly  ceiled,  and  the  timbers  cased  with  wood  un- 
painted.  The  pillows  were  checkered  and  tasselled,  and 


THE  WALLS  OF  QUEBEC.  67 

the  usual  long-pointed  red  woollen  or  worsted  night-cap 
was  placed  on  each.  I  pulled  mine  out  to  see  how  it 
was  made.  It  was  in  the  form  of  a  double  cone,  one 
end  tucked  into  the  other ;  just  such,  it  appeared,  as  I 
saw  men  wearing  all  day  in  the  streets.  Probably  I 
should  have  put  it  on  if  the  cold  had  been  then,  as  it 
is  sometimes  there,  thirty  or  forty  degrees  below  zero. 

When  we  landed  at  Quebec  the  next  morning,  a  man 
lay  on  his  back  on  the  wharf,  apparently  dying,  in  the 
midst  of  a  crowd  and  directly  in  the  path  of  the  horses, 
groaning,  "  0  ma  conscience  !  "  I  thought  that  he  pro 
nounced  his  French  more  distinctly  than  any  I  heard,  as 
if  the  dying  had  already  acquired  the  accents  of  a  uni 
versal  language.  Having  secured  the  only  unengaged 
berths  in  the  Lord  Sydenham  steamer,  which  was  to 
leave  Quebec  before  sundown,  and  being  resolved,  now 
that  I  had  seen  somewhat  of  the  country,  to  get  an  idea 
of  the  city,  I  proceeded  to  walk  round  the  Upper  Town, 
or  fortified  portion,  which  is  two  miles  and  three  quarters 
in  circuit,  alone,  as  near  as  I  could  get  to  the  cliff  and 
the  walls,  like  a  rat  looking  for  a  hole  ;  going  round  by 
the  southwest,  where  there  is  but  a  single  street  between 
the  cliff  and  the  water,  and  up  the  long,  wooden  stairs, 
through  the  suburbs  northward  to  the  King's  Woodyard, 
which  I  thought  must  have  been  a  long  way  from  his 
fireplace,  and  under  the  cliffs  of  the  St.  Charles,  where 
the  drains  issue  under  the  walls,  and  the  walls  are  loop- 
holed  for  musketry ;  so  returning  by  Mountain  Street 
and  Prescott  Gate  to  the  Upper  Town.  Having  found 
my  way  by  an  obscure  passage  near  the  St.  Louis  Gate 
to  the  glacis  on  the  north  of  the  citadel  proper,  —  I  be 
lieve  that  I  was  the  only  visitor  then  in  the  city  who  got 
in  there,  —  I  enjoyed  a  prospect  nearly  as  good  as  from 


68  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

within  the  citadel  itself,  which  I  had  explored  some  days 
before.  As  I  walked  on  the  glacis  I  heard  the  sound  of 
a  bagpipe  from  the  soldiers'  dwellings  in  the  rock,  and 
was  further  soothed  and  affected  by  the  sight  of  a  sol 
dier's  cat  walking  up  a  elected  plank  into  a  high  loop 
hole,  designed  for  mus-catry,  as  serene  as  Wisdom  her 
self,  and  with  a  gracefully  waving  motion  of  her  tail,  as 
if  her  ways  were  ways  of  pleasantness  and  all  her  paths 
were  peace.  Scaling  a  slat  fence,  where  a  small  force 
might  have  checked  me,  I  got  out  of  the  esplanade  into 
the  Governor's  Garden,  and  read  the  well-known  in 
scription  on  Wolfe  and  Montcalm's  monument,  which 
for  saying  much  in  little,  and  that  to  the  purpose,  un 
doubtedly  deserved  the  prize  medal  which  it  received : 

MORTEM     .    VIRTUS    .    COMMUNEM    . 

FAMAM    .    HISTORIA    . 
MONUMENTUM    .    POSTERITAS     . 
DEDIT. 

Valor  gave  them  one  death,  history  one  fame,  posterity 
one  monument.  The  Government  Garden  has  for  nose 
gays,  amid  kitchen  vegetables,  beside  the  common  gar 
den  flowers,  the  usual  complement  of  cannon  directed 
toward  some  future  and  possible  enemy.  I  then  re 
turned  up  St.  Louis  Street  to  the  esplanade  and  ram 
parts  there,  and  went  round  the  Upper  Town  once  more, 
though  I  was  very  tired,  this  time  on  the  inside  of  the 
wall ;  for  I  knew  that  the  wall  was  the  main  thing  in 
Quebec,  and  had  cost  a  great  deal  of  money,  and  there 
fore  I  must  make  the  most  of  it.  In  fact,  these  are 
the  only  remarkable  walls  we  have  in  North  America, 
though  we  have  a  good  deal  of  Virginia  fence,  it  is  true. 
Moreover,  I  cannot  say  but  I  yielded  in  some  measure 


THE  WALLS  OF  QUEBEC.  69 

to  the  soldier  instinct,  and,  having  but  a  short  time  to 
spare,  thought  it  best  to  examine  the  wall  thoroughly, 
that  I  might  be  the  better  prepared  if  I  should  ever  be 
called  that  way  again  in  the  service  of  my  country.  I 
committed  all  the  gates  to  memory  in  their  order,  which 
did  not  cost  me  so  much  trouble  as  it  would  have  done 
at  the  hundred-gated  city,  there  being  only  five  ;  nor 
were  they  so  hard  to  remember  as  those  seven  of  Boeo 
tian  Thebes ;  and,  moreover,  I  thought  that,  if  seven 
champions  were  enough  against  the  latter,  one  would  be 
enough  against  Quebec,  though  he  bore  for  all  armor 
and  device  only  an  umbrella  and  a  bundle.  I  took  the 
nunneries  as  I  went,  for  I  had  learned  to  distinguish 
them  by  the  blinds  ;  and  I  observed  also  the  foundling 
hospitals  and  the  convents,  and  whatever  was  attached 
to,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  the  walls.  All  the  rest  I  omitted, 
as  naturally  as  one  would  the  inside  of  an  inedible  shell 
fish.  These  were  the  only  pearls,  and  the  wall  the  only 
mother-of-pearl  for  me.  Quebec  is  chiefly  famous  for 
the  thickness  of  its  parietal  bones.  The  technical  terms 
of  its  conchology  may  stagger  a  beginner  a  little  at 
first,  such  as  banlieue,  esplanade,  glacis,  ravelin,  cavalier, 
&c.,  &c.,  but  with  the  aid  of  a  comprehensive  dictionary 
you  soon  learn  the  na'ture  of  your  ground.  I  was  sur 
prised  at  the  extent  of  the  artillery  barracks,  built  so 
long  ago,  —  Casernes  Nouvelles,  they  used  to  be  called, — 
nearly  six  hundred  feet  in  length  by  forty  in  depth, 
where  the  sentries,  like  peripatetic  philosophers,  were 
so  absorbed  in  thought,  as  not  to  notice  me  when  I 
passed  in  and  out  at  the  gates.  Within,  are  "  small  arms 
of  every  description,  sufficient  for  the  equipment  of 
twenty  thousand  men,"  so  arranged  as  to  give  a  startling 
coup  d'oeil  to  strangers.  I  did  not  enter,  not  wishing  to 


70  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

get  a  black  eye ;  for  they  are  said  to  be  "  in  a  state  of 
complete  repair  and  readiness  for  immediate  use."  Here, 
for  a  short  time,  I  lost  sight  of  the  wall,  but  I  recovered 
it  again  on  emerging  from  the  barrack  yard.  There  I 
met  with  a  Scotchman  who  appeared  to  have  business 
with  the  wall,  like  myself;  and,  being  thus  mutually 
drawn  together  by  a  similarity  of  tastes,  we  had  a  little 
conversation  sub  moenibus,  that  is,  by  an  angle  of  the 
wall  which  sheltered  us.  He  lived  about  thirty  miles 
northwest  of  Quebec ;  had  been  nineteen  years  in  the 
country ;  said  he  was  disappointed  that  he  was  not 
brought  to  America  after  all,  but  found  himself  still 
under  British  rule  and  where  his  own  language  was  not 
spoken ;  that  many  Scotch,  Irish,  and  English  were  dis 
appointed  in  like  manner,  and  either  went  to  the  States, 
or  pushed  up  the  river  to  Canada  West,  nearer  to  the 
States,  and  where  their  language  was  spoken.  He 
talked  of  visiting  the  States  some  time ;  and,  as  he  seemed 
ignorant  of  geography,  I  warned  him  that  it  was  one 
thing  to  visit  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  another  to 
visit  the  State  of  California.  He  said  it  was  colder  there 
than  usual  at  that  season,  and  he  was  lucky  to  have 
brought  his  thick  togue,  or  frock-coat,  with  him ;  thought 
it  would  snow,  and  then  be  pleasant  and  warm.  That  is 
the  way  we  are  always  thinking.  However,  his  words 
were  music  to  me  in  my  thin  hat  and  sack. 

At  the  ramparts  on  the  cliff  near  the  old  Parliament 
House  I  counted  twenty-four  thirty-two-pounders  in  a 
row,  pointed  over  the  harbor,  with  their  balls  piled 
pyramid-wise  between  them,  —  there  are  said  to  be  in 
all  about  one  hundred  and  eighty  guns  mounted  at  Que 
bec,  —  all  which  were  faithfully  kept  dusted  by  officials, 
in  accordance  with  the  motto,  "  In  time  of  peace  pre- 


THE  WALLS  OF  QUEBEC.  71 

pare  for  war  " ;  but  I  saw  no  preparations  for  peace  :  she 
was  plainly  an  uninvited  guest. 

Having  thus  completed  the  circuit  of  this  fortress, 
both  within  and  without,  I  went  no  farther  by  the  wall 
for  fear  that  I  should  become  wall-eyed.  However,  I 
think  that  I  deserve  to  be  made  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Sappers  and  Miners. 

In  short,  I  observed  everywhere  the  most  perfect 
arrangements  for  keeping  a  wall  in  order,  not  even 
permitting  the  lichens  to  grow  on  it,  which  some  think 
an  ornament ;  but  then  I  saw  no  cultivation  nor  pastur 
ing  within  it  to  pay  for  the  outlay,  and  cattle  were 
strictly  forbidden  to  feed  on  the  glacis  under  the  se 
verest  penalties.  Where  the  dogs  get  their  milk  I  don't 
know,  and  I  fear  it  is  bloody  at  best. 

The  citadel  of  Quebec  says,  "I  will  live  here,  and 
you  sha'n't  prevent  me."  To  which  you  return,  that  you 
have  not  the  slightest  objection ;  live  and  let  live.  The 
Martello  towers  looked,  for  all  the  world,  exactly  like 
abandoned  wind-mills  which  had  not  had  a  grist  to  grind 
these  hundred  years.  Indeed,  the  whole  castle  here  was 
a  "  folly," —  England's  folly,  —  and,  in  more  senses  than 
one,  a  castle  in  the  air.  The  inhabitants  and  the  govern 
ment  are  gradually  waking  up  to  a  sense  of  this  truth ; 
for  I  heard  something  said  about  their  abandoning  the 
wall  around  the  Upper  Town,  and  confining  the  fortifi 
cations  to  the  citadel  of  forty  acres.  Of  course  they 
will  finally  reduce  their  intrenchments  to  the  circum 
ference  of  their  own  brave  hearts. 

The  most  modern  fortifications  have  an  air  of  antiq 
uity  about  them ;  they  have  the  aspect  of  ruins  in  better 
or  worse  repair  from  the  day  they  are  built,  because 
they  are  not  really  the  work  of  this  age.  The  very 


72  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

place  where  the  soldier  resides  has  a  peculiar  tendency 
to  become  old  and  dilapidated,  as  the  word  barrack  im 
plies.  I  couple  all  fortifications  in  my  mind  with  the 
dismantled  Spanish  forts  to  be  found  in  so  many  parts 
of  the  world  ;  and  if  in  any  place  they  are  not  actually 
dismantled,  it  is  because  that  there  the  intellect  of  the 
inhabitants  is  dismantled.  The  commanding  officer  of 
an  old  fort  near  Valdivia  in  South  America,  when  a 
traveller  remarked  to  him  that,  with  one  discharge,  his 
gun-carriages  would  certainly  fall  to  pieces,  gravely  re 
plied,  "No,  I  am  sure,  sir,  they  would  stand  two." 
Perhaps  the  guns  of  Quebec  would  stand  three.  Such 
structures  carry  us  back  to  the  Middle  Ages,  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem,  and  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  and  the  days  of  the 
Bucaniers.  In  the  armory  of  the  citadel  they  showed 
me  a  clumsy  implement,  long  since  useless,  which  they 
called  a  Lombard  gun.  I  thought  that  their  whole  cita 
del  was  such  a  Lombard  gun,  fit  object  for  the  museums 
of  the  curious.  Such  works  do  not  consist  with  the  de 
velopment  of  the  intellect.  Huge  stone  structures  of 
all  kinds,  both  in  their  erection  and  by  their  influence 
when  erected,  rather  oppress  than  liberate  the  mind. 
They  are  tombs  for  the  souls  of  men,  as  frequently  for 
their  bodies  also.  The  sentinel  with  his  musket  beside 
a  man  with  his  umbrella  is  spectral.  There  is  not  suffi 
cient  reason  for  his  existence.  Does  my  friend  there, 
with  a  bullet  resting  on  half  an  ounce  of  powder,  think 
that  he  needs  that  argument  in  conversing  with  me  ?  The 
fort  was  the  first  institution  that  was  founded  here,  and 
it  is  amusing  to  read  in  Charnplain  how  assiduously  they 
worked  at  it  almost  from  the  first  day  of  the  settlement. 
The  founders  of  the  colony  thought  this  an  excellent  site 
for  a  wall,  —  and  no  doubt  it  was  a  better  site,  in  some 


THE  WALLS  OF   QUEBEC.  73 

respects,  for  a  wall  than  for  a  city,  —  but  it  chanced  that 
a  city  got  behind  it.  It  chanced,  too,  that  a  Lower  Town 
got  before  it,  and  clung  like  an  oyster  to  the  outside  of 
the  crags,  as  you  may  see  at  low  tide.  It  is  as  if  you 
were  to  come  to  a  country  village  surrounded  by  pali 
sades  in  the  old  Indian  fashion,  —  interesting  only  as  a 
relic  of  antiquity  and  barbarism.  A  fortified  town  is 
like  a  man  cased  in  the  heavy  armor  of  antiquity,  with 
a  horse-load  of  broadswords  and  small  arms  slung  to 
him,  endeavoring  to  go  about  his  business.  Or  is  this 
an  indispensable  machinery  for  the  good  government  of 
the  country  ?  The  inhabitants  of  California  succeed 
pretty  well,  and  are  doing  better  and  better  every  day, 
without  any  such  institution.  What  use  has  this  for 
tress  served,  to  look  at  it  even  from  the  soldiers'  point  of 
view  ?  At  first  the  French  took  care  of  it ;  yet  Wolfe 
sailed  by  it  with  impunity,  and  took  the  town  of  Quebec 
without  experiencing  any  hinderance  at  last  from  its 
fortifications.  They  were  only  the  bone  for  which  the 
parties  fought.  Then  the  English  began  to  take  care  of 
it.  So  of  any  fort  in  the  world, —  that  in  Boston  harbor, 
for  instance.  We  shall  at  length  hear  that  an  enemy 
sailed  by  it  in  the  night,  for  it  cannot  sail  itself,  and 
both  it  and  its  inhabitants  are  always  benighted.  How 
often  we  read  that  the  enemy  occupied  a  position  which 
commanded  the  old,  and  so  the  fort  was  evacuated. 
Have  not  the  school-house  and  the  printing-press  occu 
pied  a  position  which  commands  such  a  fort  as  this  ? 

However,  this  is  a  ruin  kept  in  remarkably  good  re 
pair.  There  are  some  eight  hundred  or  thousand  men 
there  to  exhibit  it.  One  regiment  goes  bare-legged  to 
increase  the  attraction.  If  you  wish  to  study  the  mus 
cles  of  the  leg  about  the  knee,  repair  to  Quebec.  This 


s 
4 


74  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

universal  exhibition  in  Canada  of  the  tools  and  sinews 
of  war  reminded  me  of  the  keeper  of  a  menagerie  show 
ing  his  animals'  claws.  It  was  the  English  leopard 
showing  his  claws.  Always  the  royal  something  or 
other;  as,  at  the  menagerie,  the  Royal  Bengal  Tiger. 
Silliman  states  that  "  the  cold  is  so  intense  in  the  winter 
nights,  particularly  on  Cape  Diamond,  that  the  sentinels 
cannot  stand  it  more  than  one  hour,  and  are  relieved  at 
the  expiration  of  that  time";  "  and -even,  as  it  is  said, 
at  much  shorter  intervals,  in  case  of  the  most  extreme 
cold."  What  a  natural  or  unnatural  fool  must  that  sol 
dier  be,  —  to  say  nothing  of  his  government,  —  who, 
when  quicksilver  is  freezing  and  blood  is  ceasing  to  be 
quick,  will  stand  to  have  his  face  frozen,  watching  the 
walls  of  Quebec,  though,  so  far  as  they  are  concerned, 
both  honest  and  dishonest  men  all  the  \vorld  over 
have  been  in  their  beds  nearly  half  a  century,  —  or  at 
least  for  that  space  travellers  have  visited  Quebec  only 
as  they  would  read  history.  I  shall  never  again  wake 
up  in  a  colder  night  than  usual,  but  I  shall  think  how 
rapidly  the  sentinels  are  relieving  one  another  on  the 
walls  of  Quebec,  their  quicksilver  being  all  frozen,  as  if 
apprehensive  that  some  hostile  Wolfe  may  even  then 
be  scaling  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  or  some  persever 
ing  Arnold  about  to  issue  from  the  wilderness  ;  some 
Malay  or  Japanese,  perchance,  coming  round  by  the 
northwest  coast,  have  chosen  that  moment  to  assault 
the  citadel !  Why  I  should  as  soon  expect  to  find  the 
sentinels  still  relieving  one  another  on  the  walls  of  Nin 
eveh,  which  have  so  long  been  buried  to  the  world ! 
What  a  troublesome  thing  a  wall  is  !  I  thought  it  was 
to  defend  me,  and  not  I  it.  Of  course,  if  they  had  no 
wall  they  would  not  need  to  have  any  sentinels. 


THE  WALLS  OF   QUEBEC.  75 

You  might  venture  to  advertise  this  farm  as  well 
fenced  with  substantial  stone  walls  (saying  nothing 
about  the  eight  hundred  Highlanders  and  Royal  Irish 
who  are  required  to  keep  them  from  toppling  down)  ; 
stock  and  tools  to  go  with  the  land  if  desired.  But  it 
would  not  be  wise  for  the  seller  to  exhibit  his  farm- 
book. 

Why  should  Canada,  wild  and  unsettled  as  it  is,  im 
press  us  as  an  older  country  than  the  States,  unless 
because  her  institutions  are  old  ?  All  things  appeared 
to  contend  there,  as  I  have  implied,  with  a  certain  rust  of 
antiquity,  —  such  as  forms  on  old  armor  and  iron  guns, 
—  the  rust  of  conventions  and  formalities.  It  is  said 
that  the  metallic  roofs  of  Montreal  and  Quebec  keep 
sound  and  bright  for  forty  years  in  some  cases.  But  if 
the  rust  was  not  on  the  tinned  roofs  and  spires,  it  was 
on  the  inhabitants  and  their  institutions.  Yet  the  work 
of  burnishing  goes  briskly  forward.  I  imagined  that  the 
government  vessels  at  the  wharves  were  laden  with  rot 
ten-stone  and  oxalic  acid,  —  that  is  what  the  first  ship 
from  England  in  the  spring  comes  freighted  with, —  and 
the  hands  of  the  colonial  legislature  are  cased  in  wash- 
leather.  The  principal  exports  must  be  gunny  bags, 
verdigrease,  and  iron  rust.  Those  who  first  built  this 
fort,  coming  from  Old  France  with  the  memory  and 
tradition  of  feudal  days  and  customs  weighing  on  them, 
were  unquestionably  behind  their  age ;  and  those  who 
now  inhabit  and  repair  it  are  behind  their  ancestors  or 
predecessors.  Those  old  chevaliers  thought  that  they 
could  transplant  the  feudal  system  to  America.  It  has 
been  set  out,  but  it  has  not  thriven.  Notwithstanding 
that  Canada  was  settled  first,  and,  unlike  New  England, 
for  a  long  series  of  years  enjoyed  the  fostering  care  of 


7G  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

the  mother  country,  —  notwithstanding  that,  as  Charle- 
voix  tells  us,  it  had  more  of  the  ancient  noblesse  among  its 
early  settlers  than  any  other  of  the  French  colonies,  and 
perhaps  than  all  the  others  together,  —  there  are  in  both 
the  Canadas  but  600,000  of  French  descent  to-day,  — 
about  half  so  many  as  the  population  of  Massachusetts. 
The  whole  population  of  both  Canadas  is  but  about 
1,700,000  Canadians,  English,  Irish,  Scotch,  Indians, 
and  all,  put  together !  Samuel  Laing,  in  his  essay  on 
the  Northmen,  to  whom  especially,  rather  than  the  Sax 
ons,  he  refers  the  energy  and  indeed  the  excellence  of 
the  English  character,  observes  that,  when  they  occupied 
Scandinavia,  "  each  man  possessed  his  lot  of  land  with 
out  reference  to,  or  acknowledgment  of,  any  other  man, 

—  without  any  local  chief  to  whom  his  military  service 
or  other  quit-rent  for  his  land  was  due,  —  without  ten 
ure  from,  or  duty  or  obligation  to,  any  superior,  real  or 
fictitious,  except  the  general  sovereign.     The  individual 
settler  held  his  land,  as  his  descendants  in  Norway  still 
express  it,  by  the  same  right  as  the  king  held  his  crown, 

—  by  udal  right,  or  adel,  —  that  is,  noble  right."     The 
French  have  occupied  Canada,  not  udally,  or  by  noble 
right,  but  feudally,  or  by  ignoble  right.     They*  are  a 
nation  of  peasants. 

It  was  evident  that,  both  on  account  of  the  feudal 
system  and  the  aristocratic  government,  a  private  man 
was  not  worth  so  much  in  Canada  as  in  the  United 

I  States ;  and,  if  your  wealth  in  any  measure  consists  in 
manliness,  in  originality,  and  independence,  you  had 
better  stay  here.  How  could  a  peaceable,  freethiriking 
man  live  neighbor  to  the  Forty -ninth  Regiment?  A  New- 
Englander  would  naturally  be  a  bad  citizen,  probably  a 
rebel,  there,  —  certainly  if  he  were  already  a  rebel  at 


THE  WALLS  OF   QUEBEC.  77 

home.  I  suspect  that  a  poor  man  who  is  not  servile  is 
a  much  rarer  phenomenon  there  and  in  England  than 
in  the  Northern  United  States.  An  Englishman,  me- 
thinks,  —  not  to  speak  of  other  European  nations,  — ' 
habitually  regards  himself  merely  as  a  constituent  part 
of  the  English  nation  ;  he  is  a  member  of  the  royal 
regiment  of  Englishmen,  and  is  proud  of  his  company, 
as  he  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  it.  But  an  American, 

—  one  who  has  made  a  tolerable  use  of  his  opportuni 
ties,  —  cares,  comparatively,  little  about  such  things,  and 
is  advantageously  nearer  to  the  primitive  and  the  ulti 
mate  condition  of  man  in  these  respects.    It  is  a  govern 
ment,  that  English  one,  —  like  most  other  European  ones, 

—  that  cannot  afford  to  be  forgotten,  as  you  would  nat 
urally  forget  it ;  under  which  one  cannot  be  wholesomely 
neglected,  and  grow  up  a  man  and  not  an  Englishman 
merely,  —  cannot  be  a  poet  even  without  danger  of  being 
made  poet-laureate  !    Give  me  a  country  where  it  is  the  Jj 
most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  a  government  that  ( 
does  not  understand  you  to  let  you  alone.     One  would  . 
say  that  a  true  Englishman  could  speculate  only  within 
bounds.     (It  is  true  the  Americans  have  proved  that 
they,  in  more   than  one   sense,  can   speculate  without 
bounds.)     He  has  to  pay  his  respects  to  so  many  things, 
that,  before  he  knows  it,  he  may  have  paid  away  all  he  is 
worth.     What  makes  the  United  States  government,  on 
the  whole,  more  tolerable,  —  I  mean  for  us  lucky  white 
men,  —  is  the  fact  that  there  is  so  much  less  of  govern- 
ment  with  us.     Here  it  is  only  once  in  a  month  or  a 
year  that  a  man  needs  remember  that  institution ;  and 
those  who  go  to  Congress  can  play  the  game  of  the 
Kilkenny  cats  there  without  fatal  consequences  to  those 
who  stay  at  home,  —  their  term  is  so  short :  but  in  Canada 


78  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

you  are  reminded  of  the  government  every  day.  It  pa 
rades  itself  before  you.  It  is  not  content  to  be  the  ser 
vant,  but  will  be  the  master ;  and  every  day  it  goes  out 
to  the  Plains  of  Abraham  or  to  the  Champ  de  Mars  and 
exhibits  itself  and  its  tools.  Everywhere  there  appeared 
an  attempt  to  make  and  to  preserve  trivial  and  other 
wise  transient  distinctions.  In  the  streets  of  Montreal 
and  Quebec  you  met  not  only  with  soldiers  in  red,  and 
shuffling  priests  in  unmistakable  black  and  white,  with 
Sisters  of  Charity  gone  into  mourning  for  their  deceased 
relative,  —  not  to  mention  the  nuns  of  various  orders 
depending  on  the  fashion  of  a  tear,  of  whom  you  heard, — 
but  youths  belonging  to  some  seminary  or  other,  wear 
ing  coats  edged  with  white,  who  looked  as  if  their  ex 
panding  hearts  were  already  repressed  with  a  piece  of 
tape.  In  short,  the  inhabitants  of  Canada  appeared  to 
be  suffering  between  two  fires,  —  the  soldiery  and  the 
priesthood. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    SCENERY    OF    QUEBEC  ;    AND    THE    RIVER    ST. 
LAWRENCE. 

ABOUT  twelve  o'clock  this  day,  being  in  the  Lower 
Town,  I  looked  up  at  the  signal-gun  by  the  flag-staff  on 
Cape  Diamond,  and  saw  a  soldier  up  in  the  heavens 
there  making  preparations  to  fire  it,  —  both  he  and  the 
gun  in  bold  relief  against  the  sky.  Soon  after,  being 
warned  by  the  boom  of  the  gun  to  look  up  again,  there 
was  only  the  cannon  in  the  sky,  the  smoke  just  blowing 


QUEBEC,  AND  THE  ST.  LAWEENCE.  79 

away  from  it,  as  if  the  soldier,  having  touched  it  off,  had 
concealed  himself  for  effect,  leaving  the  sound  to  echo 
grandly  from  shore  to  shore,  and  far  up  and  down  the 
river.  This  answered  the  purpose  of  a  dinner-horn. 

There  are  no  such  restaurateurs  in  Quebec  or  Montreal 
as  there  are  in  Boston.  I  hunted  an  hour  or  two  in  vain 
in  this  town  to  find  one,  till  I  lost  my  appetite.  In  one 
house,  called  a  restaurateur,  where  lunches  were  adver 
tised,  I  found  only  tables  covered  with  bottles  and  glasses 
innumerable,  containing  apparently  a  sample  of  every 
liquid  that  has  been  known  since  the  earth  dried  up  after 
the  flood,  but  no  scent  of  solid  food  did  I  perceive  gross 
enough  to  excite  a  hungry  mouse.  In  short,  I  saw  nothing 
to  tempt  me  there,  but  a  large  map  of  Canada  against 
the  wall.  In  another  place  I  once  more  got  as  far  as 
the  bottles,  and  then  asked  for  a  bill  of  fare ;  was  told 
to  walk  up  stairs ;  had  no  bill  of  fare,  nothing  but  fare. 
"  Have  you  any  pies  or  puddings  ?  "  I  inquired,  for  I  am 
obliged  to  keep  my  savageness  in  check  by  a  low  diet. 
"  No,  sir ;  we  've  nice  mutton-chop,  roast  beef,  beef-steak, 
cutlets,"  and  so  on.  A  burly  Englishman,  who  was  in 
the  midst  of  the  siege  of  a  piece  of  roast  beef,  and  of 
whom  I  have  never  had  a  front  view  to  this  day,  turned 
half  round,  with  his  mouth  half  full,  and  remarked, 
"  You  '11  find  no  pies  nor  puddings  in  Quebec,  sir ;  they 
don't  make  any  here."  I  found  that  it  was  even  so,  and 
therefore  bought  some  musty  cake  and  some  fruit  in  the 
open  market-place.  This  market-place  by  the  water 
side,  where  the  old  women  sat  by  their  tables  in  the 
open  air,  amid  a  dense  crowd  jabbering  all  languages, 
was  the  best  place  in  Quebec  to  observe  the  people ;  and 
the  ferry-boats,  continually  coming  and  going  with  their 
motley  crews  and  cargoes,  added  much  to  the  entertain- 


80  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

ment.  I  also  saw  them  getting  water  from  the  river, 
for  Quebec  is  supplied  with  water  by  cart  and  barrel. 
This  city  impressed  me  as  wholly  foreign  and  French, 
for  I  scarcely  heard  the  sound  of  the  English  language 
in  the  streets.  More  than  three  fifths  of  the  inhabitants 
are  of  French  origin ;  and  if  the  traveller  did  not  visit 
the  fortifications  particularly,  he  might  not  be  reminded 
that  the  English  have  any"  foothold  here ;  and,  in  any 
case,  if  he  looked  no  farther  than  Quebec,  they  would 
appear  to  have  planted  themselves  in  Canada  only  as 
they  have  in  Spain  at  Gibraltar ;  and  he  who  plants 
upon  a  rock  cannot  expect  much  increase.  The  novel 
sights  and  sounds  by  the  water-side  made  me  think  of 
such  ports  as  Boulogne,  Dieppe,  Rouen,  and  Havre  de 
Grace,  which  I  have  never  seen  ;  but  I  have  no  doubt 
that  they  present  similar  scenes.  I  was  much  amused 
from  first  to  last  with  the  sounds  made  by  the  charette 
and  caleche  drivers.  It  was  that  part  of  their  foreign 
language  that  you  heard  the  most  of,  —  the  French  they 
talked  to  their  horses,  —  and  which  they  talked  the 
loudest.  It  was  a  more  novel  sound  to  me  than  the 
French  of  conversation.  The  streets  resounded  with  the 
cries,  " Qui  done /"  "March  tot!"  I  suspect  that  many 
of  our  horses  which  came  from  Canada  would  prick  up 
their  ears  at  these  sounds.  Of  the  shops,  I  was  most 
attracted  by  those  where  furs  and  Indian  works  were 
sold,  as  containing  articles  of  genuine  Canadian  manu 
facture.  I  have  been  told  that  two  townsmen  of  mine, 
who  were  interested  in  horticulture,  travelling  once  in 
Canada,  and  being  in  Quebec,  thought  it  would  be  a 
good  opportunity  to  obtain  seeds  of  the  real  Canada 
crook-neck  squash.  So  they  went  into  a  shop  where 
such  things  were  advertised,  and  inquired  for  the  same. 


QUEBEC,  AND  THE  ST.  LAWEENCE.  81 

The  shopkeeper  had  the  very  thing  they  wanted.  "  But 
are  you  sure,"  they  asked,  "  that  these  are  the  genuine 
Canada  crook-neck  ?  "  "0  yes,  gentlemen,"  answered 
he,  "  they  are  a  lot  which  I  have  received  directly  from 
Boston."  I  resolved  that  my  Canada  crook-neck  seeds 
should  be  such  as  had  grown  in  Canada. 

Too  much  has  not  been  said  about  the  scenery  of 
Quebec.  The  fortifications  of  Cape  Diamond  are  omni 
present.  They  preside,  they  frown  over  the  river  and 
surrounding  country.  You  travel  ten,  twenty,  thirty 
miles  up  or  down  the  river's  banks,  you  ramble  fifteen 
miles  amid  the  hills  on  either  side,  and  then,  when  you 
have  long  since  forgotten  them,  perchance  slept  on  them 
by  the  way,  at  a  turn  of  the  road  or  of  your  body,  there 
they  are  still,  with  their  geometry  against  the  sky.  The 
child  that  is  born  and  brought  up  thirty  miles  distant, 
and  has  never  travelled  to  the  city,  reads  his  country's 
history,  sees  the  level  lines  of  the  citadel  amid  the  cloud- 
built  citadels  in  the  western  horizon,  and  is  told  that  that 
is  Quebec.  No  wonder  if  Jacques  Cartier's  pilot  ex 
claimed  in  Norman  French,  Que  bee  !  —  "  What  a  beak !  " 
—  when  he  saw  this  cape,  as  some  suppose.  Every 
modern  traveller  involuntarily  uses  a  similar  expression. 
Particularly  it  is  said  that  its  sudden  apparition  on  turn 
ing  Point  Levi  makes  a  memorable  impression  on  him 
who  arrives  by  water.  The  view  from  Cape  Diamond 
has  been  compared  by  European  travellers  with  the 
most  remarkable  views  of  a  similar  kind  in  Europe, 
such  as  from  Edinburgh  Castle,  Gibraltar,  Cintra,  and 
others,  and  preferred  by  many.  A  main  peculiarity  in 
this,  compared  with  other  views  which  I  have  beheld,  is 
that  it  is  from  the  ramparts  of  a  fortified  city,  and  not 
from  a  solitary  and  majestic  river  cape  alone  that  this 

4*  F 


82  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

view  is  obtained.  I  associate  the  beauty  of  Quebec 
with  the  steel-like  and  flashing  air,  which  may  be  pecu 
liar  to  that  season  of  the  year,  in  which  the  blue  flowers 
of  the  succory  and  some  late  golden-rods  and  buttercups 
on  the  summit  of  Cape  Diamond  were  almost  my  only 
companions,  —  the  former  bluer  than  the  heavens  they 
faced.  Yet  even  I  yielded  in  some  degree  to  the  in 
fluence  of  historical  associations,  and  found  it  hard  to 
attend  to  the  geology  of  Cape  Diamond  or  the  botany 
of  the  Plains  of  Abraham.  I  still  remember  the  harbor 
far  beneath  me,  sparkling  like  silver  in  the  sun,  —  the 
answering  highlands  of  Point  Levi  on  the  southeast,  — 
the  frowning  Cap  Tourmente  abruptly  bounding  the  sea 
ward  view  far  in  the  northeast,  —  the  villages  of  Lorette 
and  Charlesbourg  on  the  north,  —  and  further  west  the 
distant  Val  Cartier,  sparkling  with  white  cottages,  hardly 
removed  by  distance  through  the  clear  air,  —  not  to  men 
tion  a  few  blue  mountains  along  the  horizon  in  that  di 
rection.  You  look  out  from  the  ramparts  of  the  citadel 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  civilization.  Yonder  small 
group  of  hills,  according  to  the  guide-book,  forms  "  the 
portal  of  the  wilds  which  are  trodden  only  by  the  feet 
of  the  Indian  hunters  as  far  as  Hudson's  Bay."  It  is 
but  a  few  years  since  Bouchette  declared  that  the  coun 
try  ten  leagues  north  of  the  British  capital  of  North 
America  was  as  little  known  as  the  middle  of  Africa. 
Thus  the  citadel  under  my  feet,  and  all  historical  asso 
ciations,  were  swept  away  again  by  an  influence  from 
the  wilds  and  from  nature,  as  if  the  beholder  had  read 
her  history,  —  an  influence  which,  like  the  Great  River 
itself,  flowed  from  the  Arctic  fastnesses  and  Western 
forests  with  irresistible  tide  over  all. 

The  most  interesting  object  in  Canada  to  me  was  the 


QUEBEC,  AND  THE  ST.  LAWKENCE.  83 

River  St.  Lawrence,  known  far  and  wide,  and  for  centu 
ries,  as  the  Great  River.  Cartier,  its  discoverer,  sailed  up 
it  as  far  as  Montreal  in  1535,  —  nearly  a  century  before 
the  coming  of  the  Pilgrims  ;  and  I  have  seen  a  pretty 
accurate  map  of  it  so  far,  containing  the  city  of  "  Hoche- 
laga  "  and  the  river  "  Saguenay,"  in  Ortelius's  Tkea- 
trum  Orbis  Terrarum,  printed  at  Antwerp  in  1575, — - 
the  first  edition  having  appeared  in  ]  570,  —  in  which 
the  famous  cities  of  "  Norumbega "  and  "  Orsinora  " 
stand  on  the  rough-blocked  continent  where  New  Eng 
land  is  to-day,  and  the  fabulous  but  unfortunate  Isle  of 
Demons,  and  Frislant,  and  others,  lie  off  and  on  in  the 
unfrequented  sea,  some  of  them  prowling  near  what  is 
now  the  course  of  the  Cunard  steamers.  Iji  this  pon 
derous  folio  of  the  "  Ptolemy  of  his  age,"  said  to  be  the 
first  general  atlas  published  after  the  revival  of  the 
sciences  in  Europe,  only  one  page  of  which  is  devoted 
to  the  topography  of  the  Novus  Orbis,  the  St.  Law 
rence  is  the  only  large  river,  whether  drawn  from  fancy 
or  from  observation,  on  the  east  side  of  North  America. 
It  was  famous  in  Europe  before  the  other  rivers  of 
North  America  were  heard  of,  notwithstanding  that  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  is  said  to  have  been  discovered 
first,  and  its  stream  was  reached  by  Soto  not  long  after ; 
but  the  St.  Lawrence  had  attracted  settlers  to  its  cold 
shores  long  before  the  Mississippi,  or  even  the  Hudson, 
was  known  to  the  world.  Schoolcraft  was  misled  by 
Gallatin  into  saying  that  Narvaez  discovered  the  Mis 
sissippi.  De  Vega  does  not  say  so.  The  first  explorers 
declared  that  the  summer  in  that  country  was  as  warm 
as  France,  and  they  named  one  of  the  bays  in  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence  the  Bay  of  Chaleur,  or  of  warmth  ; 
but  they  said  nothing  about  the  winter  being  as  cold  as 


84  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

Greenland.  In  the  manuscript  account  of  Carrier's 
second  voyage,  attributed  by  some  to  that  navigator 
himself,  it  is  called  "  the  greatest  river,  without  com 
parison,  that  is  known  to  have  ever  been  seen."  The 
savages  told  him  that  it  was  the  " chemin  du  Canada" — 
the  highway  to  Canada,  —  "  which  goes  so  far  that  no 
man  had  ever  been  to  the  end  that  they  had  heard."  The 
Saguenay,  one  of  its  tributaries,  which  the  panorama 
has  made  known  to  New  England  within  three  years,  is 
described  by  Cartier,  in  1535,  and  still  more  particularly 
by  Jean  Alphonse,  in  1542,  who  adds,  "I  think  that  this 
river  comes  from  the  sea  of  Cathay,  for  in  this  place 
there  issues  a  strong  current,  and  there  runs  there  a 
terrible  tide."  The  early  explorers  saw  many  whales 
and  other  sea-monsters  far  up  the  St.  Lawrence.  Cham- 
plain,  in  his  map,  represents  a  whale  spouting  in  the 
harbor  of  Quebec,  three  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from 
what  is  called  the  mouth  of  the  river ;  and  Charlevoix 
takes  his  reader  to  the  summit  of  Cape  Diamond  to  see 
the  "  porpoises,  white  as  snow,"  sporting  on  the  surface 
of  the  harbor  of  Quebec.  And  Boucher  says  in  1664, 
"from  there  (Tadoussac)  to  Montreal  is  found  a  great 
quantity  of  Marsouins  blancs"  Several  whales  have  been 
taken  pretty  high  up  the  river  since  I  was  there.  P.  A. 
Gosse,  in  his  "  Canadian  Naturalist,"  p.  171  (London, 
1840),  speaks  of  "  the  white  dolphin  of  the  St.  Law 
rence  (Delphinus  Canadensis)"  as  considered  different 
from  those  of  the  sea.  "  The  Natural  History  Society 
of  Montreal  offered  a  prize,  a  few  years  ago,  for  an  essay 
on  the  Cetacea  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  which  was,  I  be 
lieve,  handed  in."  In  Champlain's  day  it  was  com 
monly  called  "  the  Great  River  of  Canada."  More 
than  one  nation  has  claimed  it.  In  Ogilby's  "  America 


QUEBEC,  AND  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE.  85 

of  1670,"  in  the  map  Novi  Belgii,  it  is  called  «  De 
Groote  Rivier  van  Niew  Nederlandt."  It  bears  differ 
ent  names  in  different  parts  of  its  course,  as  it  flows 
through  what  were  formerly  the  territories  of  different 
nations.  From  the  Gulf  to  Lake  Ontario  it  is  called  at 
present  the  St.  Lawrence ;  from  Montreal  to  the  same 
place  it  is  frequently  called  the  Cateraqui ;  and  higher 
up  it  is  known  successively  as  the  Niagara,  Detroit,  St. 
Clair,  St.  Mary's,  and  St.  Louis  rivers.  Humboldt, 
speaking  of  the  Orinoco,  says  that  this  name  is  unknown 
in  the  interior  of  the  country ;  so  likewise  the  tribes 
that  dwell  about  the  sources  of  the  St.  Lawrence  have 
never  heard  the  name  which  it  bears  in  the  lower  part 
of  its  course.  It  rises  near  another  father  of  waters,  — 
the  Mississippi,  —  issuing  from  a  remarkable  spring  far  up 
in  the  woods,  called  Lake  Superior,  fifteen  hundred  miles 
in  circumference  ;  and  several  other  springs  there  are 
thereabouts  which  feed  it.  It  makes  such  a  noise  in  its 
tumbling  down  at  one  place  as  is  heard  all  round  the 
world.  Bouchette,  the  Survey  or- General  of  the  Cana- 
das,  calls  it  "  the  most  splendid  river  on  the  globe  " ; 
says  that  it  is  two  thousand  statute  miles  long  (more 
recent  geographers  make  it  four  or  five  hundred  miles 
longer)  ;  that  at  the  Riviere  du  Sud  it  is  eleven  miles 
wide ;  at  the  Traverse,  thirteen  ;  at  the  Paps  of  Matane, 
twenty-five  ;  at  the  Seven  Islands,  seventy-three ;  and 
at  its  mouth,  from  Cape  Rosier  to  the  Mingan  Settle 
ments  in  Labrador,  near  one  hundred  and  five  (?)  miles 
wide.  According  to  Captain  Bayfield's  recent  chart  it 
is  about  ninety-six  geographical,  miles  wide  at  the  latter 
place,  measuring  at  right  angles  with  the  stream.  It  has 
much  the  largest  estuary,  regarding  both  length  and 
breadth,  of  any  river  on  the  globe.  Humboldt  says 


86  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

that  the  river  Plate,  which  has  the  broadest  estuary  of 
the  South  American  rivers,  is  ninety-two  geographical 
miles  wide  at  its  mouth ;  also  he  found  the  Orinoco  to 
be  more  than  three  miles  wide  at  five  hundred  and  sixty 
miles  from  its  mouth ;  but  he  does  not  tell  us  that  ships 
of  six  hundred  tons  can  sail  up  it  so  far,  as  they  can  up 
the  St.  Lawrence  to  Montreal,  —  an  equal  distance.  If  he 
had  described  a  fleet  of  such  ships  at  anchor  in  a  city's 
port  so  far  inland,  we  should  have  got  a  very  different 
idea  of  the  Orinoco.  Perhaps  Charlevoix  describes  the 
St.  Lawrence  truly  as  the  most  navigable  river  in  the 
world.  Between  Montreal  and  Quebec  it  averages 
about  two  miles  wide.  The  tide  is  felt  as  far  up  as 
Three  Rivers,  four  hundred  and  thirty-two  miles,  which 
is  as  far  as  from  Boston  to  Washington.  As  far  up  as 
Cap  aux  Oyes,  sixty  or  seventy  miles  below  Quebec, 
Kalm  found  a  great  part  of  the  plants  near  the  shore  to 
be  marine,  as  glass-wort  (Salicorma),  seaside  pease 
(Pisum  maritimum),  sea-milkwort  (Glaux),  beach-grass 
(Psamma  arenarium),  seaside  plantain  (Plantago  mari- 
tima),  the  sea-rocket  (Bunias  caMle"),  &c. 

The  geographer  Guyot  observes  that  the  Maranon  is 
three  thousand  miles  long,  and  gathers  its  waters  from 
a  surface  of  a  million  and  a  half  square  miles  ;  that  the 
Mississippi  is  also  three  thousand  miles  long,  but  its 
basin  covers  only  from  eight  to  nine  hundred  thousand 
square  miles  ;  that  the  St.  Lawrence  is  eighteen  hun 
dred  miles  long,  and  its  basin  covers  more  than  a  million 
square  miles  (Darby  says  five  hundred  thousand)  ;  and 
speaking  of  the  lakes,  he  adds,  "  These  vast  fresh-water 
seas,  together  with  the  St.  Lawrence,  cover  a  surface  of 
nearly  one  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  and  it  has 
been  calculated  that  they  contain  about  one  half  of  all 


QUEBEC,  AND  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE.  87 

the  fresh  water  on  the  surface  of  our  planet."  But  all 
these  calculations  are  necessarily  very  rude  and  inaccu 
rate.  Its  tributaries,  the  Ottawa,  St.  Maurice,  and  Sa- 
guenay,  are  great  rivers  themselves.  The  latter  is  said 
to  be  more  than  one  thousand  (?)  feet  deep  at  its  mouth, 
while  its  cliffs  rise  perpendicularly  an  equal  distance 
above  its  surface.  Pilots  say  there  are  no  soundings  till 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  up  the  St.  Lawrence.  The 
greatest  sounding  in  the  river,  given  on  Bayfield's  chart 
of  the  gulf  and  river,  is  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
fathoms.  McTaggart,  an  engineer,  observes  that  "  the 
Ottawa  is  larger  than  all  the  rivers  in  Great  Britain, 
were  they  running  in  one."  The  traveller  Grey  writes : 
"A  dozen  Danubes,  Rhines,  Taguses,  and  Thameses 
would  be  nothing  to  twenty  miles  of  fresh  water  in 
breadth  (as  where  he  happened  to  be),  from  ten  to 
forty  fathoms  in  depth."  And  again :  "  There  is  not 
perhaps  in  the  whole  extent  of  this  immense  continent 
so  fine  an  approach  to  it  as  by  the  river  St.  Lawrence. 
In  the  Southern  States  you  have,  in  general,  a  level 
country  for  many  miles  inland ;  here  you  are  introduced 
at  once  into  a  majestic  scenery,  where  everything  is  on 
a  grand  scale,  —  mountains,  woods,  lakes,  rivers,  preci 
pices,  waterfalls." 

We  have  not  yet  the  data  for  a  minute  comparison  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  with  the  South  American  rivers ;  but 
it  is  obvious  that,  taking  it  in  connection  with  its  lakes, 
its  estuary,  and  its  falls,  it  easily  bears  off  the  palm 
from  all  the  rivers  on  the  globe ;  for  though,  as  Bou- 
chette  observes,  it  may  not  carry  to  the  ocean  a  greater 
volume  of  water  than  the  Amazon  and  Mississippi,  its 
surface  and  cubic  mass  are  far  greater  than  theirs.  But, 
unfortunately,  this  noble  river  is  closed  by  ice  from  the 


88  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

beginning  of  December  to  the  middle  of  April.  The 
arrival  of  the  first  vessel  from  England  when  the  ice 
breaks  up  is,  therefore,  a  great  event,  as  when  the  sal 
mon,  shad,  and  alewives  come  up  a  river  in  the  spring 
to  relieve  the  famishing  inhabitants  on  its  banks.  Who 
can  say  what  would  have  been  the  history  of  this  conti 
nent  if,  as  has  been  suggested,  this  river  had  emptied 
into  the  sea  where  New  York  stands ! 

After  visiting  the  Museum  and  taking  one  more  look 
at  the  wall,  I  made  haste  to  the  Lord  Sydenham  steamer, 
which  at  five  o'clock  was  to  leave  for  Montreal.  I  had 
already  taken  a  seat  on  deck,  but  finding  that  I  had  still 
an  hour  and  a  half  to  spare,  and  remembering  that  large 
map  of  Canada  which  I  had  seen  in  the  parlor  of  the 
restaurateur  in  my  search  after  pudding,  and  realizing 
that  I  might  never  see  the  like  out  of  the  country,  I 
returned  thither,  asked  liberty  to  look  at  the  map,  rolled 
up  the  mahogany  table,  put  my  handkerchief  on  it,  stood 
on  it,  and  copied  all  I  wanted  before  the  maid  came  in 
and  said  to  me  standing  on  the  table,  "  Some  gentlemen 
want  the  room,  sir";  and  I  retreated  without  having 
broken  the  neck  of  a  single  bottle,  or  my  own,  very 
thankful  and  willing  to  pay  for  all  the  solid  food  I  had 
got.  We  were  soon  abreast  of  Cap  Rouge,  eight  miles 
above  Quebec,  after  we  got  underway.  It  was  in  this 
place,  then  called  "Fort  du  France  Roy"  that  the  Sieur 
de  Roberval  with  his  company,  having  sent  home  two 
of  his  three  ships,  spent  the  winter  of  1542-43.  It 
appears  that  they  fared  in  the  following  manner  (I 
translate  from  the  original)  :  "  Each  mess  had  only  two 
loaves,  weighing  each  a  pound,  and  half  a  pound  of  beef. 
They  ate  pork  for  dinner,  with  half  a  pound  of  butter, 
and  beef  for  supper,  with  about  two  handfuls  of  beans, 


QUEBEC,  AND  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE.  89 

without  butter.  Wednesdays,  Fridays,  and  Saturdays 
they  ate  salted  cod,  and  sometimes  green,  for  dinner, 
with  butter  ;  and  porpoise  and  beans  for  supper.  Mon 
sieur  Roberval  administered  good  justice,  and  punished 
each  according  to  his  offence.  One,  named  Michel  Gail- 
Ion,  was  hung  for  theft ;  John  of  Nantes  was  put  in 
irons  and  imprisoned  for  his  fault ;  and  others  were  like 
wise  put  in  irons ;  and  many  were  whipped,  both  men 
and  women ;  by  which  means  they  lived  in  peace  and 
tranquillity."  In  an  account  of  a  voyage  up  this  river, 
printed  in  the  Jesuit  Relations  in  the  year  1664,  it  is 
said :  "  It  was  an  interesting  navigation  for  us  in  ascend 
ing  the  river  from  Cap  Tourment  to  Quebec,  to  see  on 
this  side  and  on  that,  for  the  space  of  eight  leagues,  the 
farms  and  the  houses  of  the  company,  built  by  our 
French,  all  along  these  shores.  On  the  right,  the 
seigniories  of  Beauport,  of  Notre  Dames  des  Anges ; 
and  on  the  left,  this  beautiful  Isle  of  Orleans."  The 
same  traveller  names  among  the  fruits  of  the  country 
observed  at  the  Isles  of  Richelieu,  at  the  head  of  Lake 
St.  Peter,  "  kinds  (des  especes)  of  little  apples  or  haws 
(semelles),  and  of  pears,  which  only  ripen  with  the 
frost." 

Night  came  on  before  we  had  passed  the  high  banks. 
Wo  had  come  from  Montreal  to  Quebec  in  one  night. 
The  return  voyage,  against  the  stream,  takes  but  an 
hour  longer.  Jacques  Carder,  the  first  white  man  who 
is  known  to  have  ascended  this  river,  thus  speaks  of  his 
voyage  from  what  is  now  Quebec  to  the  foot  of  Lake 
St.  Peter,  or  about  half-way  to  Montreal :  "  From  the 
said  day,  the  19th,  even  to  the  28th  of  the  said  month, 
[September,  1535]  we  had  been  navigating  up  the  said 
river  without  losing  hour  or  day,  during  which  time  we 


90  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

had  seen  and  found  as  much  country  and  lands  as  level 
as  we  could  desire,  full  of  the  most  beautiful  trees  in 
the  world,"  which  he  goes  on  to  describe.  But  we 
merely  slept  and  woke  again  to  find  that  we  had  passed 
through  all  that  country  which  he  was  eight  days  in 
sailing  through.  He  must  have  had  a  troubled  sleep. 
We  were  not  long  enough  on  the  river  to  realize  that  it 
had  length ;  we  got  only  the  impression  of  its  breadth, 
as  if  we  had  passed  over  a  lake  a  mile  or  two  in  breadth 
and  several  miles  long,  though  we  might  thus  have  slept 
through  a  European  kingdom.  Being  at  the  head  of 
Lake  St.  Peter,  on  the  above-mentioned  28th  of  Sep 
tember,  dealing  with  the  natives,  Cartier  says :  "  We 
inquired  of  them  by  signs  if  this  was  the  route  to  Ho- 
chelaga  [Montreal] ;  and  they  answered  that  it  was,  and 
that  there  were  yet  three  days'  journeys  to  go  there." 
He  finally  arrived  at  Hochelaga  on  the  2d  of  October. 

When  I  went  on  deck  at  dawn  we  had  already  passed 
through  Lake  St.  Peter,  and  saw  islands  ahead  of  us. 
Our  boat  advancing  with  a  strong  and  steady  pulse  over 
the  calm  surface,  we  felt  as  if  we  were  permitted  to 
be  awake  in  the  scenery  of  a  dream.  Many  vivacious 
Lombardy  poplars  along  the  distant  shores  gave  them  a 
novel  and  lively,  though  artificial,  look,  and  contrasted 
strangely  with  the  slender  and  graceful  elms  on  both 
shores  and  islands.  The  church  of  Varennes,  fifteen 
miles  from  Montreal,  was  conspicuous  at  a  great  distance 
before  us,  appearing  to  belong  to,  and  rise  out  of,  the 
river ;  and  now,  and  before,  Mount  Royal  indicated  where 
the  city  was.  We  arrived  about  seven  o'clock,  and  set 
forth  immediately  to  ascend  the  mountain,  two  miles 
distant,  going  across  lots  in  spite  of  numerous  signs 
threatening  the  severest  penalties  to  trespassers,  past 


QUEBEC,  AND  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE.  91 

an  old  building  known  as  the  Mac  Tavish  property,  — • 
Simon  Mac  Tavish,  I  suppose,  whom  Silliman  refers  to 
as  "in  a  sense  the  founder  of  the  Northwestern  Com 
pany."  His  tomb  was  behind  in  the  woods,  with  a  re 
markably  high  wall  and  higher  monument.  The  family 
returned  to  Europe.  He  could  not  have  imagined  how 
dead  he  would  be  in  a  few  years,  and  all  the  more  dead 
and  forgotten  for  being  buried  under  such  a  mass  of 
gloomy  stone,  where  not  even  memory  could  get  at  him 
without  a  crowbar.  Ah  !  poor  man,  with  that  last  end 
of  his  !  However,  he  may  have  been  the  worthiest  of 
mortals  for  aught  that  I  know.  From  the  mountain-top 
we  got  a  view  of  the  whole  city ;  the  flat,  fertile,  exten 
sive  island ;  the  noble  sea  of  the  St.  Lawrence  swelling 
into  lakes ;  the  mountains  about  St.  Hyacinth,  and  in 
Vermont  and  New  York ;  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ottawa 
in  the  west,  overlooking  that  St.  Ann's  where  the  voya- 
geur  sings  his  "  parting  hymn,"  and  bids  adieu  to  civili 
zation, — a  name,  thanks  to  Moore's  verses,  the  most  sug 
gestive  of  poetic  associations  of  any  in  Canada.  We, 
too,  climbed  the  hill  which  Cartier,  first  of  white  men, 
ascended,  and  named  Mont-real,  (the  3d  of  October, 
O.  S.,  1535,)  and,  like  him,  "  we  saw  the  said  river  as 
far  as  we  could  see,  grand,  large,  et  spacieux,  going  to 
the  southwest,"  toward  that  land  whither  Donnacona 
had  told  the  discoverer  that  he  had  been  a  month's  jour 
ney  from  Canada,  where  there  grew  "force  Canelle  et 
Girofle"  much  cinnamon  and  cloves,  and  where  also,  as 
the  natives  told  him,  were  three  great  lakes  and  after 
ward  une  mer  douce,  —  a  sweet  sea,  —  de  laquelle  riest 
mention  avoir  vu  le  bout,  of  which  there  is  no  mention 
to  have  seen  the  end.  But  instead  of  an  Indian  town 
far  in  the  interior  of  a  new  world,  with  guides  to 


92  A  YANKEE  IN  CANADA. 

show  us  where  the  river  came  from,  we  found  a  splen 
did  and  bustling  stone-built  city  of  white  men,  and  only 
a  few  squalid  Indians  offered  to  sell  us  baskets  at  the 
Lachine  Railroad  Depot,  and  Hochelaga  is,  perchance, 
but  the  fancy  name  of  an  engine  company  or  an  eating- 
house. 

We  left  Montreal  Wednesday,  the  2d  of  October,  late 
in  the  afternoon.  In  the  La  Prairie  cars  the  Yankees 
made  themselves  merry,  imitating  the  cries  of  the  cha- 
rette-drivers  to  perfection,  greatly  to  the  amusement  of 
some  French-Canadian  travellers,  and  they  kept  it  up 
all  the  way  to  Boston.  I  saw  one  person  on  board  the 
boat  at  St.  John's,  and  one  or  two  more  elsewhere  in 
Canada,  wearing  homespun  gray  great-coats,  or  capotes, 
with  conical  and  comical  hoods,  which  fell  back  between 
their  shoulders  like  small  bags,  ready  to  be  turned  up 
over  the  head  when  occasion  required,  though  a  hat 
usurped  that  place  now.  They  looked  as  if  they  wrould 
be  convenient  and  proper  enough  as  long  as  the  coats 
were  new  and  tidy,  but  would  soon  come  to  have  a  beg 
garly  and  unsightly  look,  akin  to  rags  and  dust-holes. 
We  reached  Burlington  early  in  the  morning,  where  the 
Yankees  tried  to  pass  off  their  Canada  coppers,  but  the 
news-boys  knew  better.  Returning  through  the  Green 
Mountains,  I  was  reminded  that  I  had  not  seen  in  Can 
ada  such  brilliant  autumnal  tints  as  I  had  previously 
seen  in  Vermont.  Perhaps  there  was  not  yet  so  great 
and  sudden  a  contrast  with  the  summer  heats  in  the  for 
mer  country  as  in  these  mountain  valleys.  As  we  were 
passing  through  Ashburnham,  by  a  new  white  house 
which  stood  at  some  distance  in  a  field,  one  passenger 
exclaimed,  so  that  all  in  the  car  could  hear  him,  "  There, 
there  '&  not  so  good  a  house  as  that  in  all  Canada ! " 


THE  WALLS  OF  QUEBEC.  93 

I  did  not  much  wonder  at  his  remark,  for  there  is  a 
neatness,  as  well  as  evident  prosperity,  a  certain  elastic 
easiness  of  circumstances,  so  to  speak,  when  not  rich, 
about  a  New  England  house,  as  if  the  proprietor  could 
at  least  afford  to  make  repairs  in  the  spring,  which  the 
Canadian  houses  do  not  suggest.  Though  of  stone,  they 
are  no  better  constructed  than  a  stone  barn  would  bo 
with  us ;  the  only  building,  except  the  chateau,  on  which 
money  and  taste  are  expended,  being  the  church.  In 
Canada  an  ordinary  New  England  house  would  be  mis 
taken  for  the  chateau,  and  while  every  village  here  con 
tains  at  least  several  gentlemen  or  "  squires,"  there  there 
is  but  one  to  a  seigniory. 

I  got  home  this  Thursday  evening,  having  spent  just 
one  week  in  Canada  and  travelled  eleven  hundred  miles. 
The  whole  expense  of  this  journey,  including  two  guide 
books  and  a  map,  which  cost  one  dollar  twelve  and  a 
half  cents,  was  twelve  dollars  seventy-five  cents.  I  do 
not  suppose  that  I  have  seen  all  British  America  ;  that 
could  not  be  done  by  a  cheap  excursion,  unless  it  were 
a  cheap  excursion  to  the  Icy  Sea,  as  seen  by  Hearne  or 
McKenzie,  and  then,  no  doubt,  some  interesting  features 
would  be  omitted.  I  wished  to  go  a  little  way  behind 
that  word  Canadense,  of  which  naturalists  make  such 
frequent  use  ;  and  I  should  like  still  right  well  to  make 
a  longer  excursion  on  foot  through  the  wilder  parts  of 
Canada,  which  perhaps  might  be  called  Iter  Canadense. 


ANTI-SLAVERY   AND    REFORM 
PAPERS. 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS; 


I  LATELY  attended  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Con 
cord,  expecting,  as  one  among  many,  to  speak  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  in  Massachusetts ;  but  I  was  surprised 
and  disappointed  to  find  that  what  had  called  my  towns 
men  together  was  the  destiny  of  Nebraska,  and  not  of 
Massachusetts,  and  that  what  I  had  to  say  would  be 
entirely  out  of  order.  I  had  thought  that  the  house  was 
on  fire,  and  not  the  prairie  ;  but  though  several  of  the 
citizens  of  Massachusetts  are  now  in  prison  for  attempt 
ing  to  rescue  a  slave  from  her  own  clutches,  not  one  of 
the  speakers  at  that  meeting  expressed  regret  for  it,  not 
one  even  referred  to  it.  It  was  only  the  disposition  of 
some  wild  lands  a  thousand  miles  off,  which  appeared  to 
concern  them.  The  inhabitants  of  Concord  are  not  pre 
pared  to  stand  by  one  of  their  own  bridges,  but  talk  only 
of  taking  up  a  position  on  the  highlands  beyond  the  Yel 
lowstone  River.  Our  Buttricks  and  Davises  and  Hos- 
mers  are  retreating  thither,  and  I  fear  that  they  will 
leave  no  Lexington  Common  between  them  and  the 
enemy.  There  is  not  one  slave  in  Nebraska ;  there  are 
perhaps  a  million  slaves  in  Massachusetts. 

They  who  have  been  bred  in  the  school  of  politics  fail 
now  and  always  to  face  the  facts.  Their  measures  are 

*  An  Address,  delivered  at  the  Anti-Slavery  Celebration  at  Fram- 
ingham,  July  4th,  1854. 

5  G 


98  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

half  measures  and  make-shifts  merely.  They  put  off 
the  day  of  settlement  indefinitely,  and  meanwhile  the 
debt  accumulates.  Though  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
had  not  been  the  subject  of  discussion  on  that  occasion, 
it  was  at  length  faintly  resolved  by  my  townsmen,  at  an 
adjourned  meeting,  as  I  learn,  that  the  compromise  com 
pact  of  1820  having  been  repudiated  by  one  of  the 
parties,  "  Therefore,  ....  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of 
1850  must  be  repealed."  But  this  is  not  the  reason 
why  an  iniquitous  law  should  be  repealed.  The  fact 
which  the  politician  faces  is  merely,  that  there  is  less 
honor  among  thieves  than  was  supposed,  and  not  the 
fact  that  they  are  thieves. 

As  I  had  no  opportunity  to  express  my  thoughts  at 
that  meeting,  will  you  allow  me  to  do  so  here  ? 

Again  it  happens  that  the  Boston  Court-IIouse  is  full 
of  armed  men,  holding  prisoner  and  trying  a  MAN,  to 
find  out  if  he  is  not  really  a  SLAVE.  Does  any  one 
think  that  justice  or  God  awaits  Mr.  Loring's  decision? 
For  him  to  sit  there  deciding  still,  when  this  question 
is  already  decided  from  eternity  to  eternity,  and  the  un 
lettered  slave  himself,  and  the  multitude  around  have 
long  since  heard  and  assented  to  the  decision,  is  simply 
to  make  himself  ridiculous.  "We  may  be  tempted  to 
ask  from  whom  he  received  his  commission,  and  who  he 
is  that  received  it ;  what  novel  statutes  he  obeys,  and 
what  precedents  are  to  him  of  authority.  Such  an 
arbiter's  very  existence  is  an  impertinence.  We  do  not 
ask  him  to  make  up  his  mind,  but  to  make  up  his 
pack. 

I  listen  to  hear  the  voice  of  a  Governor,  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  forces  of  Massachusetts.  I  hear  only 
the  creaking  of  crickets  and  the  hum  of  insects  which 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  99 

now  fill  the  summer  air.  The  Governor's  exploit  is  to 
review  the  troops  on  muster  days.  I  have  seen  him  on 
horseback,  with  his  hat  off,  listening  to  a  chaplain's 
prayer.  It  chances  that  that  is  all  I  have  ever  seen  of 
a  Governor.  I  think  that  I  could  manage  to  get  along 
without  one.  If  he  is  not  of  the  least  use  to  prevent 
my  being  kidnapped,  pray  of  what  important  use  is  he 
likely  to  be  to  me  ?  When  freedom  is  most  endangered, 
he  dwells  in  the  deepest  obscurity.  A  distinguished 
clergyman  told  me  that  he  chose  the  profession  of  a 
clergyman,  because  it  afforded  the  most  leisure  for  lit 
erary  pursuits.  I  would  recommend  to  him  the  profes 
sion  of  a  governor. 

Three  years  ago,  also,  when  the  Simms  tragedy  was 
acted,  I  said  to  myself,  there  is  such  an  officer,  if  not 
such  a  man,  as  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  —  what 
has  he  been  about  the  last  fortnight  ?  Has  he  had  as 
much  as  he  could  do  to  keep  on  the  fence  during  this 
moral  earthquake  ?  It  seemed  to  me  that  no  keener 
satire  could  have  been  aimed  at,  no  more  cutting  insult 
have  been  offered  to  that  man,  than  just  what  happened, 
—  the  absence  of  all  inquiry  after  him  in  that  crisis. 
The  worst  and  the  most  I  chance  to  know  of  him  is, 
that  he  did  not  improve  that  opportunity  to  make  him 
self  known,  and  worthily  known.  He  could  at  least 
have  resigned  himself  into  fame.  It  appeared  to  be 
forgotten  that  there  was  such  a  man  or  such  an  office. 
Yet  no  doubt  he  was  endeavoring  to  fill  the  gubernato 
rial  chair  all  the  while.  He  was  no  Governor  of  mine. 
He  did  not  govern  me. 

But  at  last,  in  the  present  case,  the  Governor  was 
heard  from.  After  he  and  the  United  States  govern 
ment  had  perfectly  succeeded  in  robbing  a  poor  inno- 


100  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

cent  black  man  of  his  liberty  for  life,  and,  as  far  as 
they  could,  of  his  Creator's  likeness  in  his  breast,  he 
made  a  speech  to  his  accomplices,  at  a  congratulatory 
supper ! 

I  have  read  a  recent  law  of  this  State,  making  it  pe 
nal  for  any  officer  of  the ."  Commonwealth  "  to  "  detain 
or  aid  in  the  ....  detention,"  anywhere  within  its 
limits,  "  of  any  person,  for  the  reason  that  he  is  claimed 
as  a  fugitive  slave."  Also,  it  was  a  matter  of  notoriety 
that  a  writ  of  replevin  to  take  the  fugitive  out  of  the 
custody  of  the  United  States  Marshal  could  not  be 
served,  for  want  of  sufficient  force  to  aid  the  officer. 

I  had  thought  that  the  Governor  was,  in  some  sense, 
the  executive  officer  of  the  State ;  that  it  was  his  busi 
ness,  as  a  Governor,  to  see  that  the  laws  of  the  State  were 
executed ;  while,  as  a  man,  he  took  care  that  he  did  not, 
by  so  doing,  break  the  laws  of  humanity;  but  when 
there  is  any  special  important  use  for  him,  he  is  useless, 
or  worse  than  useless,  and  permits  the  laws  of  the  State 
to  go  unexecuted.  Perhaps  I  do  not  know  what  are  the 
duties  of  a  Governor ;  but  if  to  be  a  Governor  requires 
to  subject  one's  self  to  so  much  ignominy  without  rem 
edy,  if  it  is  to  put  a  restraint  upon  my  manhood,  I 
shall  take  care  never  to  be  Governor  of  Massachu 
setts.  I  have  not  read  far  in  the  statutes  of  this  Com 
monwealth.  It  is  not  profitable  reading.  They  do  not 
always  say  what  is  true ;  and  they  do  not  always  mean 
what  they  say.  What  I  am  concerned  to  know  is,  that 
that  man's  influence  and  authority  wrere  on  the  side  of 
the  slaveholder,  and  not  of  the  slave,  —  of  the  guilty, 
and  not  of  the  innocent,  —  of  injustice,  and  not  of  jus 
tice.  I  never  saw  him  of  whom  I  speak ;  indeed,  I  did 
not  know  that  he  was  Governor  until  this  event  occurred. 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  101 

I  heard  of  him  and  Anthony  Burns  at  the  same  time,  and 
thus,  undoubtedly,  most  will  hear  of  him.  So  far  am  I 
from  being  governed  by  him.  I  do  not  mean  that  it  was 
anything  to  his  discredit  that  I  had  not  heard  of  him, 
only  that  I  heard  what  I  did.  The  worst  I  shall  say  of 
him  is,  that  he  proved  no  better  than  the  majority  of  his 
constituents  would  be  likely  to  prove.  In  my  opinion, 
he  was  not  equal  to  the  occasion. 

The  whole  military  force  of  the  State  is  at  the  service 
of  a  Mr.  Suttle,  a  slaveholder  from  Virginia,  to  enable 
him  to  catch  a  man  whom  he  calls  his  property ;  but  not 
a  soldier  is  offered  to  save  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts 
from  being  kidnapped !  Is  this  what  all  these  soldiers, 
all  this  training,  has  been  for  these  seventy-nine  years 
past  ?  Have  they  been  trained  merely  to  rob  Mexico 
and  carry  back  fugitive  slaves  to  their  masters  ? 

These  very  nights,  I  heard  the  sound  of  a  drum  in  our 
streets.  There  were  men  training  'still ;  and  for  what  ? 
I  could  with  an  effort  pardon  the  cockerels  of  Concord 
for  crowing  still,  for  they,  perchance,  had  not  been 
beaten  that  morning ;  but  I  could  not  excuse  this  rub- 
a-dub  of  the  "  trainers."  The  slave  was  carried  back 
by  exactly  such  as  these ;  i.  e.  by  the  soldier,  of  whom 
the  best  you  can  say  in  this  connection  is,  that  he  is  a_ 
Tool  jnaae  conspicuous  by  a  painted  coat. 

Three  years  ago,  also,  just  a  week  after  the  authori 
ties  of  Boston  assembled  to  carry  back  a  perfectly  in 
nocent  man,  and  one  whom  they  knew  to  be  innocent, 
into  slavery,  the  inhabitants  of  Concord  caused  the  bells 
to  be  rung  and  the  cannons  to  be  fired,  to  celebrate 
their  liberty,  —  and  the  courage  and  love  of  liberty  of 
their  ancestors  who  fought  at  the  bridge.  As  if  those 
three  millions  had  fought  for  the  right  to  be  free  them- 


102  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

selves,  but  to  hold  in  slavery  three  millions  others. 
Now-a-days,  men  wear  a  fool's-cap,  and  call  it  a  liberty- 
^capt.~  I  do  not  know  but  there  are  some,  wLo,  if  they 
were  tied  to  a  whipping-post,  and  could  but  get  one 
hand  free,  would  use  it  to  ring  the  bells  and  fire  the 
cannons  to  celebrate  their  liberty.  So  some  of  my 
townsmen  took  the  liberty  to  ring  and  fire.  That  was 
the  extent  of  their  freedom ;  and  when  the  sound  of 
the  bells  died  away,  their  liberty  died  away  also ;  when 
the  powder  was  all  expended,  their  liberty  went  off  with 
the  smoke. 

The  joke  could  be  no  broader,  if  the  inmates  of  the 
prisons  were  to  subscribe  for  all  the  powder  to  be  used 
in  such  salutes,  and  hire  the  jailers  to  do  the  firing  and 
ringing  for  them,  while  they  enjoyed  it  through  the 
grating. 

This  is  what  I  thought  about  my  neighbors. 

Every  humane  and  intelligent  inhabitant  of  Concord, 
when  he  or  she  heard  those  bells  and  those  cannons, 
thought  not  with  pride  of  the  events  of  the  19th  of 
April,  1775,  but  with  shame  of  the  events  of  the  12th 
of  April,  1851.  But  now  we  have  half  buried  that  old 
shame  under  a  new  one. 

Massachusetts  sat  waiting  Mr.  Loring's  decision,  as 
if  it  could  in  any  way  affect  her  own  criminality.  Her 
crime,  the  most  conspicuous  and  fatal  crime  of  all,  was 
permitting  him  to  be  the  umpire  in  such  a  case.  It  was 
really  the  trial  of  Massachusetts.  Every  moment  that 
she  hesitated  to  set  this  man  free,  every  moment  that 
she  now  hesitates  to  atone  for  her  crime,  she  is  con 
victed.  The  Commissioner  on  her  case  is  God ;  not 
Edward  G.  God,  but  simple  God. 

I  wish  my  countrymen  to  consider,  that  whatever  the 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  103 

human  law  may  be,  neither  an  individual  nor  a  nation 
can  ever  commit  the  least  act  of  injustice  against  the 
obscurest  individual,  without  having  to  pay  the  penalty 
for  it.  A  government  which  deliberately  enacts  injus 
tice,  and  persists  in  it,  will  at  length  even  become  the 
laughing-stock  of  the  world. 

Much  has  been  said  about  American  slavery,  but  I 
think  that  we  do  not  even  yet  realize  what  slavery  is. 
If  I  were  seriously  to  propose  to  Congress  to  make  man 
kind  into  sausages,  I  have  no  doubt  that  most  of  the 
members  would  smile  at  my  proposition,  and  if  any  be 
lieved  me  to  be  in  earnest,  they  would  think  that  I  pro 
posed  something  much  worse  than  Congress  had  ever 
done.  But  if  any  of  them  will  tell  me  that  to  make  a 
man  into  a  sausage  would  be  much  worse,  —  would  be 
any  worse,  —  than  to  make  him  into  a  slave,  —  than  it 
was  to  enact  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  —  I  will  accuse 
him  of  foolishness,  of  intellectual  incapacity,  of  making 
a  distinction  without  a  difference.  The  one  is  just  as 
sensible  a  proposition  as  the  other. 

I  hear  a  good  deal  said  about  trampling  this  law  un 
der  foot.  Why,  one  need  not  go  out  of  his  way  to  do 
that.  This  law  rises  not  to  the  level  of  the  head  or  the 
reason  ;  its  natural  habitat  is  in  the  dirt.  It  was  born 
and  bred,  and  has  its  life,  only  in  the  dust  and  mire,  on  a 
level  with  the  feet ;  and  he  who  walks  with  freedom, 
and  does  not  with  Hindoo  mercy  avoid  treading  on 
every  venomous  reptile,  will  inevitably  tread  on  it,  and 
so  trample  it  under  foot,  —  and  Webster,  its  maker, 
with  it,  like  the  dirt-bug  and  its  ball. 

Recent  events  will  be  valuable  as  a  criticism  on  the 
administration  of  justice  in  our  midst,  or,  rather,  as 
showing  what  are  the  true  resources  of  justice  in  any 


104  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

community.  It  has  come  to  this,  that  the  friends  of 
liberty,  the  friends  of  the  slave,  have  shuddered  when 
they  have  understood  that  his  fate  was  left  to  the  legal 
tribunals  of  the  country  to  be  decided.  Free  men  have 
no  faith  that  justice  will  be  awarded  in  such  a  case.  The 
judge  may  decide  this  way  or  that ;  it  is  a  kind  of  acci 
dent,  at  best.  It  is  evident  that  he  is  not  a  competent 
authority  in  so  important  a  case.  It  is  no  time,  then, 
to  be  judging  according  to  his  precedents,  but  to  estab 
lish  a  precedent  for  the  future.  I  would  much  rather 
trust  to  the  sentiment  of  the  people.  In  their  vote,  you 
would  get  something  of  some  value,  at  least,  however 
small ;  but  in  the  other  case,  only  the  trammelled  judg 
ment  of  an  individual,  of  no  significance,  be  it  which 
way  it  might. 

It  is,  to  some  extent,  fatal  to  the  courts,  when  the  peo 
ple  are  compelled  to  go  behind  them.  I  do  not  wish 
to  believe  that  the  courts  were  made  for  fair  weather, 
and  for  very  civil  cases  merely ;  but  think  of  leaving  it 
to  any  court  in  the  land  to  decide  whether  more  than 
three  millions  of  people,  in  this  case,  a  sixth  part  of 
a  nation,  have  a  right  to  be  freemen  or  not  ?  But  it 
has  been  left  to  the  courts  of  justice,  so  called,  —  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  land,  —  and,  as  you  all  know, 
recognizing  no  authority  but  the  Constitution,  it  has  de 
cided  that  the  three  millions  are,  and  shall  continue  to 
be  slaves.  Such  judges  as  these  are  merely  the  inspec 
tors  of  a  pick-lock  and  murderer's  tools,  to  tell  him 
whether  they  are  in  working  order  or  not,  and  there 
they  think  that  their  responsibility  ends.  There  was  a 
prior  case  on  the  docket,  which  they,  as  judges  appointed 
by  God,  had  no  right  to  skip  ;  which  having  been  justly 
settled,  they  would  have  been  saved  from  this  humilia 
tion.  It  was  the  case  of  the  murderer  himself. 


-VOL  fJL*4 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  105 

The  law  will  never  make  men  free  ;  it  is  men  who 
have  got  to  make  the  law  free.     They  are^jhe  lovers  of         . 
aw  and  order,  who  observe  the  law  when  the 


Among  human  beings,  the  judge  whose  words  seal 
the  fate  of  a  man  furthest  into  eternity  is  not  he  who 
merely  pronounces  the  verdict  of  the  law,  but  he,  who 
ever  he  may  be,  who,  from  a  love  of  truth,  and  unpreju 
diced  by  any  custom  or  enactment  of  men,  utters  a 
true  opinion  or  sentence  concerning  him.  He  it  is  that 
sentences  him.  Whoever  can  discern  truth  has  re 
ceived  his  commission  from  a  higher  source  than  the 
chiefest  justice  in  the  world,  who  can  discern  only 
law.  He  finds  himself  constituted  judge  of  the  judge, 
Strange  that  it  should  be  necessary  to  state  such  simple 
truths  ! 

I  am  more  and  more  convinced  that,  with  reference  to 
any  public  question,  it  is  more  important  to  know  what 
the  country  thinks  of  it,  than  what  the  city  thinks.  The 
city  does  not  think  much.  On  any  moral  question,  I 
would  rather  have  the  opinion  of  Boxboro  than  of 
Boston  and  New  York  put  together.  When  the  former 
speaks,  I  feel  as  if  somebody  had  spoken,  as  if  humanity 
was  yet,  and  a  reasonable  being  had  asserted  its  rights, 
—  as  if  some  unprejudiced  men  among  the  country's 
hills  had  at  length  turned  their  attention  to  the  subject, 
and  by  a  few  sensible  words  redeemed  the  reputation 
of  the  race.  When,  in  some  obscure  country  town,  the 
farmers  come  together  to  a  special  town-meeting,  to 
express  their  opinion  on  some  subject  which  is  vexing 
the  land,  that,  I  think,  is  the  true  Congress,  and  the 
most  respeetable  one  that  is  ever  assembled  in  the 
United  States. 


106  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

It  is  evident  that  there  are,  in  this  Commonwealth 
at  least,  two  parties,  becoming  more  and  more  distinct, 
—  the  party  of  the  city,  and  the  party  of  the  country. 
%/  I  know  that  the  country  is  mean  enough,  but  I  am  glad 
to  believe  that  there  is  a  slight  difference  in  her  favor. 
But  as  yet,  she  has  few,  if  any  organs,  through  which 
to  express  herself.  The  editorials  which  she  reads,  like 
the  news,  come  from  the  seaboard.  Let  us,  the  inhab 
itants  of  the  country,  cultivate  self-respect.  Let  us  not 
send  to  the  city  for  aught  more  essential  than  our  broad 
cloths  and  groceries ;  or,  if  we  read  the  opinions  of  the 
city,  let  us  entertain  opinions  of  our  own. 

Among  measures  to  be  adopted,  I  would  suggest  to 
make  as  earnest  and  vigorous  an  assault  on  the  press  as 
has  already  been  made,  and  with  effect,  on  the  church. 
^  The  church  has  much  improved  within  a  few  years  ;  but 
the  press  is  almost,  without  exception,  corrupt.  I  believe 
that,  in  this  country,  the  press  exerts  a  greater  and  a 
more  pernicious  influence  than  the  church  did  in  its 
worst  period.  We  are  not  a  religious  people,  but  we 
are  a  nation  of  politicians.  We  do  not  care  for  the 
Bible,  but  we  do  care  for  the  newspaper.  At  any  meet 
ing  of  politicians,  —  like  that  at  Concord  the  other  even 
ing,  for  instance,  —  how  impertinent  it  would  be  to  quote 
from  the  Bible  !  how  pertinent  to  quote  from  a  news- 
paper  or  from  the  Constitution  !  The  newspaper  is  a 
v  Bible  which  we  read  every  morning  and  every  after 
noon,  standing  and  sitting,  riding  and  walking.  It  is  a 
Bible  which  every  man  carries  in  his  pocket,  which  lies 
on  every  table  and  counter,  and  which  the  mail,  and 
thousands  of  missionaries,  are  continually  dispersing.  It 
is,  in  short,  the  only  book  which  America  has  printed, 
and  which  America  reads.  So  wide  is  its  influence. 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  107 

The  editor  is  a  preacher  whom  you  voluntarily  support. 
Your  tax  is  commonly  one  cent  daily,  and  it  costs  noth 
ing  for  pew  hire.  But  how  many  of  these  preachers 
preach  the  truth  ?  I  repeat  the  testimony  of  many  an 
intelligent  foreigner,  as  well  as  my  own  convictions, 
when  I  say,  that  probably  no  country  was  ever  ruled  by 
so  mean  a  class  of  tyrants  as,  with  a  few  noble  excep 
tions,  are  the  editors  of  the  periodical  press  in  this  coun 
try.  And  as  they  live  and  rule  only  by  their  servility, 
and  appealing  to  the  worse,  and  not  the  better,  nature  of 
man,  the  people  who  read  them  are  in  the  condition  of 
the  dog  that  returns  to  his  vomit. 

The  Liberator  and  the  Commonwealth  were  the  only 
papers  in  Boston,  as  far  as  I  know,  which  made  them 
selves  heard  in  condemnation  of  the  cowardice  and 
meanness  of  the  authorities  of  that  city,  as  exhibited  in 
'51.  The  other  journals,  almost  without  exception,  by 
their  manner  of  referring  to  and  speaking  of  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Law,  and  the  carrying  back  of  the  slave 
Simms,  insulted  the  common  sense  of  the  country,  at 
least.  And,  for  the  most  part,  they  did  this,  one  would 
say,  because  they  thought  so  to  secure  the  approbation 
of  their  patrons,  not  being  aware  that  a  sounder  senti 
ment  prevailed  to  any  extent  in  the  heart  of  the  Com 
monwealth.  I  am  told  that  some  of  them  have  improved 
of  late ;  but  they  are  still  eminently  time-serving.  Such 
is  the  character  they  have  won. 

But,  thank  fortune,  this  preacher  can  be  even  more 
easily  reached  by  the  weapons  of  the  reformer  than 
could  the  recreant  priest.  The  free  men  of  New  Eng 
land  have  only  to  refrain  from  purchasing  and  reading 
these  sheets,  have  only  to  withhold  their  cents,  to  kill 
a  score  of  them  at  once.  One  whom  I  respect  told  me 


108  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

that  he  purchased  Mitchell's  Citizen  in  the  cars,  and 
then  threw  it  out  the  window.  But  would  not  his  con 
tempt  have  been  more  fatally  expressed  if  he  had  not 
bought  it  ? 

Are  they  Americans  ?  are* they  New-Englanders?  are 
they  inhabitants  of  Lexington  and  Concord  and  Fram- 
ingham,  who  read  and  support  the  Boston  Post,  Mail, 
Journal,  Advertiser,  Courier,  and  Times  ?  Are  these  the 
Flags  of  our  Union  ?  I  am  not  a  newspaper  reader,  and 
may  omit  to  name  the  worst. 

Could  slavery  suggest  a  more  complete  servility  than 
some  of  these  journals  exhibit  ?  Is  there  any  dust 
which  their  conduct  does  not  lick,  and  make  fouler 
still  with  its  slime  ?  I  do  not  know  whether  the  Boston 
Herald  is  still  in  existence,  but  I  remember  to  have 
seen  it  about  the  streets  when  Simms  was  carried  off. 
Did  it  not  act  its  part  well,  —  serve  its  master  faithfully? 
How  could  it  have  gone  lower  on  its  belly  ?  How  can, 
a  man  stoop  lower  than  he  is  low  ?  do  more  than  put 
his  extremities  in  the  place  of  the  head  he  has?  than 
make  his  head  his  lower  extremity  ?  When  I  have 
taken  up  this  paper  with  my  cuffs  turned  up,  I  have 
heard  the  gurgling  of  the  sewer  through  every  column, 
have  felt  that  I  was  handling  a  paper  picked  out  of 
the  public  gutters,  a  leaf  from  the  gospel  of  the  gam 
bling-house,  the  groggery,  and  the  brothel,  harmonizing 
with  the  gospel  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange. 

The  majority  of  the  men  of  the  North,  and  of  the 
South  and  East  and  West,  are  not  men  of  principle. 
If  they  vote,  they  do  not  send  men  to  Congress  on  er 
rands  of  humanity ;  but  while  their  brothers  and  sisters 
are  being  scourged  and  hung  for  loving  liberty,  while 
—  I  might  here  insert  all  that  slavery  implies  and  is, 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  109 

—  it  is  the  mismanagement  of  wood  and  iron  and  stone 
and  gold  which  concerns  them.  Do  what  you  will,  O 
Government,  with  my  wife  and  children,  my  mother 
and  brother,  my  father  and  sister,  I  will  obey  your  com 
mands  to  the  letter.  It  will  indeed  grieve  me  if  you 
hurt  them,  if  you  deliver  them  to  overseers  to  be  hunted 
by  hounds  or  to  be  whipped  to  death  ;  but,  nevertheless, 
I  will  peaceably  pursue  my  chosen  calling  on  this  fair 
earth,  until  perchance,  one  day,  when  I  have  put  on 
mourning  for  them  dead,  I  shall  have  persuaded  you  to 
relent.  Such  is  the  attitude,  such  are  the  words  of 
Massachusetts. 

Rather  than  do  thus,  I  need  not  say  what  match  I 
would  touch,  what  system  endeavor  to  blow  up ;  but 
as  I  love  my  life,  I  would  side  with  the  light,  and  let 
the  dark  earth  roll  from  under  me,  calling  my  mother 
and  my  brother  to  follow. 

I  would  remind  my  countrymen,  that  they  are  to  be 
men  first,  and  Americans  only  at  a  late  and  convenient 
hour.  No  matter  how  valuable  law  may  be  to  protect 
your  property,  even  to  keep  soul  and  body  together,  if 
it  do  not  keep  you  and  humanity  together. 

I  am  sorry  to  say,  that  I  doubt  if  there  is  a  judge  in 
Massachusetts  who  is  prepared  to  resign  his  office,  and 
get  his  living  innocently,  whenever  it  is  required  of  him 
to  pass  sentence  under  a  law  which  is  merely  contrary 
to  the  law  of  God.  I  am  compelled  to  see  that  they  put 
themselves,  or  rather,  are  by  character,  in  this  respect, 
exactly  on  a  level  with  the  marine  who  discharges  his 
musket  in  any  direction  he  is  ordered  to.  They  are  just 
as  much  tools,  and  as  little  men.  Certainly,  they  are 
not  the  more  to  be  respected,  because  their  master  en 
slaves  their  understandings  and  consciences,  instead  of 
their  bodies. 


, 


110  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  judges  and  lawyers,  —  simply  as  such,  I  mean, — 
and  all  men  of  expediency,  try  this  case  by  a  very  low 
and  incompetent  standard.  They  consider,  not  whether 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  is  right,  but  whether  it  is  what 
they  call  constitutional.  Is  virtue  constitutional,  or 
vice  ?  Is  equity  constitutional,  or  iniquity  ?  In  im 
portant  moral  and  vital  questions,  like  this,  it  is  just  as 
impertinent  to  ask  whether  a  law  i's  constitutional  or 
not,  as  to  ask  whether  it  is  profitable  or  not.  They 
persist  in  being  the  servants  of  the  worst  of  men,  and 
not  the  servants  of  humanity.  The  question  is,  not 
whether  you  or  your  grandfather,  seventy  years  ago, 
did  not  enter  into  an  agreement  to  serve  the  Devil,  and 
that  service  is  not  accordingly  now  due ;  but  whether 
you  will  not  now,  for  once  and  at  last,  serve  God,  —  in 
spite  of  your  own  past  recreancy,  or  that  of  your  an 
cestor,  —  by  obeying  that  eternal  and  only  just  CONSTI 
TUTION,  which  He,  and  not  any  Jefferson  or  Adams,  has 
written  in  your  being. 

The  amount  of  it  is,  if  the  majority  vote  the  Devil  to  be 
God,  the  minority  will  live  and  behave  accordingly,  — 
and  obey  the  successful  candidate,  trusting  that,  some 
time  or  other,  by  some  Speakers  casting-vote,  perhaps, 
they  may  reinstate  God.  This  is  the  highest  principle 
I  can  get  out  or  invent  for  my  neighbors.  These  men 
act  as  if  they  believed  that  they  could  safely  slide  down 
a  hill  a  little  way  —  or  a  good  way  —  and  would  surely 
come  to  a  place,  by  and  by,  where  they  could  begin 
to  slide  up  again.  This  is  expediency,  or  choosing  that 
course  which  offers  the  slightest  obstacles  to  the  feet,  that 
is,  a  down-hill  one.  But  there  is  no  such  thing  as  accom 
plishing  a  righteous  reform  by  the  use  of  "  expediency." 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  sliding  up  hill.  In  morals, 
the  only  sliders  are  backsliders. 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  Ill 

Thus  we  steadily  worship  Mammon,  both  school  and 
state  and  church,  and  on  the  seventh  day  curse  God 
with  a  tintamar  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the 
other. 

5  Will  mankind  never  learn  that  policy  is  not  morality, 
' —  that  it  never  secures  any  moral  right,  but  considers 
merely  what  is  expedient  ?  chooses  the  available  candi 
date,  —  who  is  invariably  the  Devil,  —  and  what  right 
have  his  constituents  to  be  surprised,  because  the  Devil 
does  not  behave  like  an  angel  of  light  ?  What  is  wanted 
is  men,  not  of  policy,  but  of  probity,  —  who  recognize  a 
higher  law  than  the  Constitution,  or  the  decision  of  the 
majority.  The  fate  of  the  country  does  not  depend  on 
how  you  vote  at  the  polls,  —  the  worst  man  is  as  strong 
as  the  best  at  that  game ;  it  does  not  depend  on  what 
kind  of  paper  you  drop  into  the  ballot-box  once  a  year, 
but  on  what  kind  of  man  you  drop  from  your  chamber 
into  the  street  every  morning. 

What  should  concern  Massachusetts  is  not  the  Ne 
braska  Bill,  nor  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  but  her  own 
slaveholding  and  servility.  Let  the  State  dissolve  her 
union  with  the  slaveholder.  She  may  wriggle  and  hes 
itate,  and  ask  leave  to  read  the  Constitution  once  more ; 
but  she  can  find  no  respectable  law  or  precedent  which 
sanctions  the  continuance  of  such  a  Union  for  an  instant. 
Let  each  inhabitant  of  the  State  dissolve  his  union 
with  her,  as  long  as  she  delays  to  do  her  duty. 

The  events  of  the  past  month  teach  me  to  distrust 
Fame.  I  see  that  she  does  not  finely  discriminate,  but 
coarsely  hurrahs.  She  considers  not  the  simple  heroism 
of  an  action,  but  only  as  it  is  connected  with  its  appar 
ent  consequences.  She  praises  till  she  is  hoarse  the 
easy  exploit  of  the  Boston  tea  party,  but  will  be  com- 


112  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

paratively  silent  about  the  braver  and  more  disinterest 
edly  heroic  attack  on  the  Boston  Court-House,  simply 
because  it  was  unsuccessful ! 

Covered  with  disgrace,  the  State  has  sat  down  coolly 
to  try  for  their  lives  and  liberties  the  men  who  attempt 
ed  to  do  its  duty  for  it.  And  this  is  called  justice! 
They  who  have  shown  that  they  can  behave  particularly 
well  may  perchance  be  put  under  bonds  for  their  good 
behavior.  They  whom  truth  requires  at  present  to  plead 
guilty  are,  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  State,  pre-emi 
nently  innocent.  While  the  Governor,  and  the  Mayor, 
and  countless  officers  of  the  Commonwealth  are  at  large, 
the  champions  of  liberty  are  imprisoned. 

Only  they  are  guiltless,  who  commit  the  crime  of  con 
tempt  of  such  a  court.  It  behooves  every  man  to  see 
that  his  influence  is  on  the  side  of  justice,  and  let  the 
courts  make  their  own  characters.  My  sympathies  in 
this  case  are  wholly  with  the  accused,  and  wholly 
against  their  accusers  and  judges.  Justice  is  sweet  and 
musical ;  but  injustice  is  harsh  and  discordant.  The 
judge  still  sits  grinding  at  his  organ,  but  it  yields  no 
music,  and  we  hear  only  the  sound  of  the  handle.  He 
believes  that  all  the  music  resides  in  the  handle,  and  the 
crowd  toss  him  their  coppers  the  same  as  before. 

Do  you  suppose  that  that  Massachusetts  which  is  now 
doing  these  things,  —  which  hesitates  to  crown  these  men, 
some  of  whose  lawyers,  and  even  judges,  perchance,  may 
be  driven  to  take  refuge  in  some  poor  quibble,  that  they 
may  not  wholly  outrage  their  instinctive  sense  of  justice, 
—  do  you  suppose  that  she  is  anything  but  base  and 
servile  ?  that  she  is  the  champion  of  liberty  ? 

Show  me  a  free  state,  and  a  court  truly  of  justice, 
and  I  will  fight  for  them,  if  need  be;  but  show  me 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  113 

Massachusetts,  and  I  refuse  her  my  allegiance,  and  ex 
press  contempt  for  her  courts. 

The  effect  of  a  good  government  is  to  make  life  more  , 
valuable,  —  of  a  bad  one,  to  make  it  less  valuable.  We 
can  afford  that  railroad,  and  all  merely  material  stock, 
should  lose  some  of  its  value,  for  that  only  compels  us  to 
live  more  simply  and  economically ;  but  suppose  that  the 
value  of  life  itself  should  be  diminished !  How  can  we 
make  a  less  demand  on  man  and  nature,  how  live  more 
economically  in  respect  to  virtue  and  all  noble  qualities, 
than  we  do  ?  I  have  lived  for  the  last  month,  —  and  I 
think  that  every  man  in  Massachusetts  capable  of  the 
sentiment  of  patriotism  must  have  had  a  similar  expe 
rience,  —  with  the  sense  of  having  suffered  a  vast  and v 
indefinite  loss.  I  did  not  know  at  first  what  ailed  me. 
At  last  it  occurred  to  me  that  what  I  had  lost  was  a 
country.  I  had  never  respected  the  government  near  to 
which  I  lived,  but  I  had  foolishly  thought  that  I  might 
manage  to  live  here,  minding  my  private  affairs,  and 
forget  it.  For  my  part,  my  old  and  worthiest  pursuits  V 
have  lost  I  cannot  say  how  much  of  their  attraction,  and 
I  feel  that  my  investment  in  life  here  is  worth  many  per 
cent  less  since  Massachusetts  last  deliberately  sent  back 
an  innocent  man,  Anthony  Burns,  to  slavery.  I  dwelt 
before,  perhaps,  in  the  illusion  that  my  life  passed  some 
where  only  between  heaven  and  hell,  but  now  I  cannot  / 
persuade  myself  that  I  do  not  dwell  wholly  witjiin  hell. 
The  site  of  that  political  organization  called  Massachu 
setts  is  to  me  morally  covered  with  volcanic  scoriaa  and 
cinders,  such  as  Milton  describes  in  the  infernal  regions. 
If  there  is  any  hell  more  unprincipled  than  our  rulers, 
and  we,  the  ruled,  I  feel  curious  to  see  it.  Life  itself 
being  worth  less,  all  things  with  it,  which  minister  to 


114  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

it,  are  worth  less.  Suppose  you  have  a  small  library, 
with  pictures  to  adorn  the  walls,  —  a  garden  laid  out 
around,  —  and  contemplate  scientific  and  literary  pur 
suits,  and  discover  all  at  once  that  your  villa,  with  all 
its  contents,  is  located  in  hell,  and  that  the  justice  of  the 
peace  has  a  cloven  foot  and  a  forked  tail,  —  do  not  these 
things  suddenly  lose  their  value  in  your  eyes  ? 

I  feel  that,  to  some  extent,  the  State  has  fatally  inter 
fered  with  my  lawful  business.  It  has  not  only  inter 
rupted  me  in  my  passage  through  Court  Street  on  errands 
of  trade,  but  it  has  interrupted  me  and  every  man  on 
his  onward  and  upward  path,  on  which  he  had  trusted 
soon  to  leave  Court  Street  far  behind.  What  right  had 
it  to  remind  me  of  Court  Street  ?  I  have  found  that 
hollow  which  even  I  had  relied  on  for  solid. 

I  am  surprised  to  see  men  going  about  their  business 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  I  say  to  myself,  "  Unfor 
tunates  !  they  have  not  heard  the  news."  I  am  surprised 
that  the  man  whom  I  just  met  on  horseback  should  be 
so  earnest  to  overtake  his  newly  bought  cows  running 
away,  —  since  all  property  is  insecure,  and  if  they  do 
not  run  away  again,  they  may  be  taken  away  from  him 
when  he  gets  them.  Fool !  does  he  not  know  that  his 
seed-corn  is  worth  less  this  year,  —  that  all  beneficent 
harvests  fail  as  you  approach  the  empire  of  hell  ?  No 
prudent  man  will  build  a  stone  house  under  these  cir 
cumstances,  or  engage  in  any  peaceful  enterprise  which 
it  requires  a  long  time  to  accomplish.  Art  is  as  long  as 
ever,  but  life  is  more  interrupted  and  less  available  for  a 
man's  proper  pursuits.  It  is  not  an  era  of  repose.  We 
have  used  up  all  our  inherited  freedom.  If  we  would 
save  our  lives,  we  must  fight  for  them. 

I  walk  toward  one  of  our  ponds ;  but  what  signifies  the 


SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  115 

beauty  of  nature  when  men  are  base  ?  We  walk  to 
lakes  to  see  our  serenity  reflected  in  them ;  when  we  are 
not  serene,  we  go  not  to  them.  Who  can  be  serene  in  a 
country  where  both  the  rulers  and  the  ruled  are  without 
principle  ?  The  remembrance  of  my  country  spoils  my 
walk.  My  thoughts  are  murder  to  the  State,  and  invol 
untarily  go  plotting  against  her. 

But  it  chanced  the  other  day  that  I  scented  a  white 
water-lily,  and  a  season  I  had  waited  for  had  arrived. 
It  is  the  emblem  of  purity.  It  bursts  up  so  pure  and 
fair  to  the  eye,  and  so  sweet  to  the  scent,  as  if  to  show 
us  what  purity  and  sweetness  reside  in,  and  can  be  ex 
tracted  from,  the  slime  and  muck  of  earth.  I  think  I 
have  plucked  the  first  one  that  has  opened  for  a  mile. 
What  confirmation  of  our  hopes  is  in  the  fragrance  of 
this  flower  !  I  shall  not  so  soon  despair  of  the  world  for 
it,  notwithstanding  slavery,  and  the  cowardice  and  want 
of  principle  of  Northern  men.  It  suggests  what  kind 
of  laws  have  prevailed  longest  and  widest,  and  still  pre 
vail,  and  that  the  time  may  come  when  man's  deeds  will 
smell  as  sweet.  Such  is  the  odor  which  the  plant  emits. 
If  Nature  can  compound  this  fragrance  still  annually, 
I  shall  believe  her  still  young  and  full  of  vigor,  her  in 
tegrity  and  genius  unimpaired,  and  that  there  is  virtue 
even  in  man,  too,  who  is  fitted  to  perceive  and  love  it. 
It  reminds  me  that  Nature  has  been  partner  to  no  Mis 
souri  Compromise.  I  scent  no  compromise  in  the  fra 
grance  of  the  water-lily.  It  is  not  a  Nymphcea  DOUG 
LAS  six.  In  it,  the  sweet,  and  pure,  and  innocent  are 
wholly  sundered  from  the  obscene  and  baleful.  I  do  not 
scent  in  this  the  time-serving  irresolution  of  a  Massa 
chusetts  Governor,  nor  of  a  Boston  Mayor.  So  behave 
that  the  odor  of  your  actions  may  enhance  the  general 


116  SLAVERY  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

sweetness  of  the  atmosphere,  that  when  we  behold  or 
scent  a  flower,  we  may  not  be  reminded  how  inconsist 
ent  your  deeds  are  with  it ;  for  all  odor  is  but  one  form 
of  advertisement  of  a  moral  quality,  and  if  fair  actions 
had  not  been  performed,  the  lily  would  not  smell  sweet. 
The  foul  slime  stands  for  the  sloth  and  vice  of  man,  the 
decay  of  humanity ;  the  fragrant  flower  that  springs  from 
it,  for  the  purity  and  courage  which  are  immortal. 

Slavery  and  servility  have  produced  no  sweet-scented 
flower  annually,  to  charm  the  senses  of  men,  for  they 
have  no  real  life :  they  are  merely  a  decaying  and  a 
death,  offensive  to  all  healthy  nostrils.  We  do  not  com 
plain  that  they  live,  but  that  they  do  not  get  buried.  Let 
the  living  bury  them ;  even  they  are  good  for  manure. 


PRAYERS  . 


Not  with  fond  shekels  of  the  tested  gold, 

Nor  gems  whose  rates  are  either  rich  or  poor, 

As  fancy  values  them  :  but  with  true  prayers, 

That  shall  be  up  at  heaven,  and  enter  there 

Ere  sunrise  ;  prayers  from  preserved  souls, 

From  fasting  maids,  whose  minds  are  dedicate  ^ 

To  nothing  temporal. 

SHAKESPEARB. 


PYTHAGORAS  said  that  the  time  when  men  are  hon- 
estest,  is  when  they  present  themselves  before  the  gods. 
If  we  can  overhear  the  prayer,  we  shall  know  the  man. 
But  prayers  are  not  made  to  be  overheard,  or  to  be  print 
ed,  so  that  we  seldom  have  the  prayer  otherwise  than  it 
can  be  inferred  from  the  man  and  his  fortunes,  which 
are  the  answer  to  the  prayer,  and  always  accord  with  it. 
Yet  there  are  scattered  about  in  the  earth  a  few  records 
of  these  devout  hours,  which  it  would  edify  us  to  read, 
could  they  be  collected  in  a  more  catholic  spirit  than  the 
wretched  and  repulsive  volumes  which  usurp  that  name. 
Let  us  not  have  the  prayers  of  one  sect,  nor  of  the 
Christian  Church,  but  of  men  in  all  ages  and  religions, 
who  have  prayed  well.  The  prayer  of  Jesus  is,  as  it 
deserves,  become  a  form  for  the  human  race.  Many 
men  have  contributed  a,  single  expression,  a  single  word 
to  the  language  of  devotion,  which  is  immediately  caught 
and  stereotyped  in  the  prayers  of  their  church  and  na 
tion.  Among  the  remains  of  Euripides,  we  have  this 


118  PRAYERS. 

prayer :  "  Thou  God  of  all !  infuse  light  into  the  souls 
of  men,  whereby  they  may  be  enabled  to  know  what  is 
the  root  from  whence  all  their  evils  spring,  and  by  what 
means  they  may  avoid  them."  In  the  Phaedrus  of  Plato, 
we  find  this  petition  in  the  mouth  of  Socrates :  "  0  gra 
cious  Pan!  and  ye  other  gods  who  preside  over  this 
place !  grant  that  I  may  be  beautiful  within ;  and  that 
those  external  things  which  I  have  may  be  such  as  may 
best  agree  with  a  right  internal  disposition  of  mind ; 
and  that  I  may  account  him  to  be  rich,  who  is  wise  and 
just."  Wacic  the  Caliph,  who  died  A.  D.  845,  ended 
his  life,  the  Arabian  historians  tell  us,  with  these  words : 
"O  thou  whose  kingdom  never  passes  away,  pity  one 
whose  dignity  is  so  transient."  But  what  led  us  to  these 
remembrances  was  the  happy  accident  which,  in  this 
undevout  age,  lately  brought  us  acquainted  with  two  or 
three  diaries,  which  attest,  if  there  be  need  of  attestation, 
the  eternity  of  the  sentiment  and  its  equality  to  itself 
through  all  the  variety  of  expression.  The  first  is  the 
prayer  of  a  deaf  and  dumb  boy. 

"  When  my  long-attached  friend  comes  to  me,  I  have  pleas 
ure  to  converse  with  him,  and  I  rejoice  to  pass  my  eyes  over 
his  countenance ;  but  soon  I  am  weary  of  spending  my  time 
causelessly  and  unimproved,  and  I  desire  to  leave  him  (but 
not  in  rudeness),  because  I  wish  to  be  engaged  in  my  business. 
But  thou,  O  my  Father,  knowest  I  always  delight  to  commune 
with  thee  in  my  lone  and  silent  heart ;  I  am  never  full  of 
thee ;  I  am  never  weary  of  thee ;  I  am  always  desiring  thee. 
I  hunger  with  strong  hope  and  affection  for  thee,  and  I  thirst 
for  thy  grace  and  spirit. 

"  When  I  go  to  visit  my  friends,  I  must  put  on  my  best  gar 
ments,  and  I  must  think  of  my  manner  to  please  them.  I  am 
tired  to  stay  long,  because  my  mind  is  not  free,  and  they 
sometimes  talk  gossip  with  me.  But,  O  my  Father,  thou 


PRAYERS.  119 

visitest  me  in  my  work,  and  I  can  lift  up  my  desires  to  tliee, 
and  my  heart  is  cheered  and  at  rest  with  thy  presence,  and 
I  am  always  alone  with  thec,  and  tliou  dost  not  steal  my  time 
by  foolishness.  I  always  ask  in  my  heart,  Where  can  I  find 
thee  ?  " 

The  next  is  a  voice  out  of  a  solitude  as  strict  and 
sacred  as  that  in  which  nature  had  isolated  this  eloquent 
mute. 

"  My  Father,  when  I  cannot  be  cheerful  or  happy,  I  can 
be  true  and  obedient,  and  I  will  not  forget  that  joy  has  been, 
and  may  still  be.  If  there  is  no  hour  of  solitude  granted  me, 
still  I  will  commune  with  thee.  If  I  may  not  search  out  and 
pierce  my  thought,  so  much  the  more  may  my  living  praise 
thee.  At  whatever  price,  I  must  be  alone  with  thee ;  this 
must  be  the  demand  I  make.  These  duties  are  not  the  life, 
but  the  means  which  enable  us  to  show  forth  the  life.  So 
must  I  take  up  this  cross,  and  bear  it  willingly.  Why  should 
I  feel  reproved  when  a  busy  one  enters  the  room  ?  I  am  not 
idle,  though  I  sit  with  folded  hands ;  but  instantly  I  must 
seek  some  cover.  For  that  shame  I  reprove  myself.  Are 
they  only  the  valuable  members  of  society  who  labor  to 
dress  and  feed  it  ?  Shall  we  never  ask  the  aim  of  all  this 
hurry  and  foam,  of  this  aimless  activity  ?  Let  the  purpose 
for  which  I  live  be  always  before  me ;  let  every  thought  and 
word  go  to  confirm  and  illuminate  that  end ;  namely,  that  I 
must  become  near  and  dear  to  thee  ;  that  now  I  am  beyond 
the  reach  of  all  but  thee. 

"  How  can  we  not  be  reconciled  to  thy  will  ?  I  will  know 
the  joy  of  giving  to  my  friend  the  dearest  treasure  I  have.  I 
know  that  sorrow  comes  not  at  once  only.  We  cannot  meet 
it,  and  say,  now  it  is  overcome,  but  again,  and  yet  again  its 
flood  pours  over  us,  and  as  full  as  at  first. 

"  If  but  this  tedious  battle  could  be  fought, 
Like  Sparta's  heroes  at  one  rocky  pass, 
'  One  day  be  spent  in  dying,'  men  had  sought 
The  spot  and  been  cut  down  like  mower's  grass." 


120  PRAYERS. 

The  next  is  all  in  metrical  form.  It  is  the  aspiration 
of  a  different  mind,  in  quite  other  regions  of  power  and 
duty,  yet  they  all  accord  at  last. 

"  Great  God,  I  ask  thee  for  no  meaner  pelf 
Than  that  I  may  not  disappoint  myself, 
That  in  my  action  I  may  soar  as  high 
As  I  can  now  discern  with  this  clear  eye. 

"  And  next  in  value,  which  thy  kindness  lends, 
That  I  may  greatly  disappoint  my  friends, 
Howe'er  they  think  or  hope  that  it  may  be, 
They  may  not  dream  how  thou  'st  distinguished  me. 

"  That  my  weak  hand  may  equal  my  firm  faith, 
And  my  life  practise  more  than  my  tongue  saith; 
That  my  low  conduct  may  not  show, 
Nor  my  relenting  lines, 
That  I  thy  purpose  did  not  know, 
Or  overrated  thy  designs." 

The  last  of  the  four  orisons  is  written  in  a  singularly 
calm  and  healthful  spirit,  and  contains  this  petition :  — 

"  My  Father !  I  now  come  to  thee  with  a  desire  to  thank 
thee  for  the  continuance  of  our  love,  the  one  for  the  other. 
I  feel  that  without  thy  love  in  me,  I  should  be  alone  here  in 
the  flesh.  I  cannot  express  my  gratitude  for  what  thou  hast 
been  and  continuest  to  be  to  me.  But  thou  knowest  what 
my  feelings  are.  When  naught  on  earth  seemeth  pleasant 
to  me,  thou  dost  make  thyself  known  to  me,  and  teach 
me  that  which  is  needful  for  me,  and  dost  cheer  my  travels 
on.  I  know  that  thou  hast  not  created  me  and  placed 
me  here  on  earth,  amidst  its  toils  and  troubles,  and  the  follies 
of  those  around  me,  and  told  me  to  be  like  thyself,  when  I 
see  so  little  of  thee  here  to  profit  by;  thou  hast  not  done  this, 
and  then  left  me  to  myself,  a  poor,  weak  man,  scarcely  able 
to  earn  my. bread.  No ;  thou  art  my  Father,  and  I  will  love 
thee,  for  thou  didst  first  love  me,  and  lovest  me  still.  We 
will  ever  be  parent  and  child.  Wilt  thou  give  me  strength 
to  persevere  in  this  great  work  of  redemption.  Wilt  thou 


PRAYERS.  121 

show  me  the  true  means  of  accomplishing  it I  thank 

thee  for  the  knowledge  that  I  have  attained  of  thce  by  thy 
sons  who  have  been  before  me,  and  especially  for  him  who 
brought  me  so  perfect  a  type  of  thy  goodness  and  love  to 

men I  know  that  thou  wilt  deal  with  me  as  I  deserve. 

I  place  myself,  therefore  in  thy  hand,  knowing  that  thou  wilt 
keep  me  from  all  harm  so  long  as  I  consent  to  live  under  thy 
protecting  care." 

Let  these  few  scattered  leaves,  which  a  chance,  as  men 
say,  but  which  to  us  shall  be  holy,  brought  under  our 
eye  nearly  at  the  same  moment,  stand  as  an  exam 
ple  of  innumerable  similar  expressions  which  no  mortal 
witness  has  reported,  and  be  a  sign  of  the  tjypaes.  Might 
they  be  suggestion  to  many  a  heart  of  yet  higher  secret 
experiences  which  are  ineffable  !  But  we  must  not  tie 
up  the  rosary  on  which  we  have  strung  these  few  white 
beads,  without  adding  a  pearl  of  great  price  from  that 
book  of  prayer,  the  "  Confessions  of  Saint  Augustine." 

"  And  being  admonished  to  reflect  upon  myself,  I  entered 
Into  the  very  inward  parts  of  my  soul,  by  thy  conduct ;  and 
I  was  able  to  do  it,  because  now  thou  wert  become  my  helper. 
I  entered  and  discerned  with  the  eye  of  my  soul  (such  as  it 
was),  even  beyond  my  soul  and  mind  itself  the  Light  un 
changeable.  Not  this  vulgar  light  which  all  flesh  may  look 
upon,  nor  as  it  were  a  greater  of  the  same  kind,  as  though  the 
brightness  of  this  should  be  manifold  greater  and  with  its 
greatness  take  up  all  space.  Not  such  was  this  light,  but 
other,  yea,  far  other  from  all  these.  Neither  was  it  so  above 
my  understanding,  as  oil  swims  above  water,  or  as  the  heaven 
is  above  the  earth.  But  it  is  above  me,  because  it  made  me ; 
and  I  am  under  it,  because  I  was  made  by  it.  He  that  knows 
truth  or  verity,  knows  what  that  Light  is,  and  he  that  knows 
it,  knows  eternity,  and  it  is  known  by  charity.  O  eternal 
Verity  !  and  true  Charity  !  and  dear  Eternity  !  thou  art  my 
God,  to  thee  do  I  sigh  day  and  night.  Thee  when  I  first  knew, 
6 


122  PKAYERS. 

thou  lifledst  me  up  that  I  might  see  there  was  what  I  might 
see,  and  that  I  was  not  yet  such  as  to  see.  And  thou  didst 
beat  back  my  weak  sight  upon  myself,  shooting  out  beams 
upon  me  after  a  vehement  manner,  and  I  even  trembled  be 
tween  love  and  horror,  and  I  found  myself  to  be  far  off,  and 
even  in  the  very  region  of  dissimilitude  from  thee." 


CIVIL    DISOBEDIENCE.* 


I  HEARTILY  accept  the  motto,  —  "  That  government 
is  best  which  governs  least "  ;  and  I  should  like  to  see  it 
acted  up  to  more  rapidly  and  systematically.  Carried 
out,  it  finally  amounts  to  this,  which  also  I  believe,  — 
"  That  government  is  best  which  governs  not  at  all"; 
and  when  men  are  prepared  for  it,  that  will  be  the  kind 
of  government  which  they  will  haveA  Government  is 
at  best  but  an  expedient ;  but  most  governments  are 
usually,  and  all  governments  are  sometimes,  inexpedient^ 
The  objections  which  have  been  brought  against  a  stand 
ing  army,  and  they  are  many  and  weighty,  and  deserve 
to  prevail,  may  also  at  last  be  brought  against  a  standing 
government.  The  standing  army  is  only  an  arm  of  the 
standing  government.  (The  government  itself,  which  is 
only  the  mode  which  tile  people  have  chosen  to  execute 
their  will,  is  equally  liable  to  be  abused  and  perverted 
before  the  people  can  act  through  id  Witness  the  pres 
ent  Mexican  war,  the  work  of  comparatively  a  few  indi 
viduals  using  the  standing  government  as  their  tool ;  for, 
in  the  outset,  the  people  would  not  have  consented  to 
this  measure. 

(  This  American  government,  —  what  is  it  but  a  tra 
dition,  though  a  recent  one,  endeavoring  to  transmit  it 
self  unimpaired  to  posterity,  but  each  instant  losing  some 

*  ^Esthetic  Papers,  No.  I.    Boston,  1849. 


124  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

of  its  integrity?)  It  lias  not  the  vitality  and  force  of  a 
single  living  man ;  fdr  a  single  man  can  bend  it  to  his 
will.  "  It  is  a  sort  of  wooden  gun  to  the  people  themselves. 
But  it  is  not  the  less  necessary  for  this ;  for  the  people  must 
have  some  complicated  machinery  or  other,  and  hear  its 
4in,  to  satisfy  that  idea  of  government  which  they  have. 
•  Governments  show  thus  how  successfully  men  can  be 
imposed  on,  even  impose  on  themselves,  for  their  own 
advantage. '>  It  is  excellent,  we  must  all  allow.  Yet  this 
government  never  of  itself  furthered  any  enterprise,  but 
by  the  alacrity  with  which  it  got  out  of  its  way.  It  does 
not  keep  the  country  free.  It  does  not  settle  the  West. 
It  does  not  educate.  The  character  inherent  in  the 
American  people  has  done  all  that  has  been  accom 
plished  ;  and  it  would  have  done  somewhat  more,  if  the 
government  had  not  sometimes  got  in  its  way.  For 
government  is  an  expedient  by  which  men  would  fain 
succeed  in  letting  one  another  alone ;  and,  as  has  been 
said,  when  it  is  most  expedient,  the  governed  are  most 
let  alone  by  it.  Trade  and  commerce,  if  they  were  not 
made  of  India-rubber,  would  never  manage  to  bounce 
over  the  obstacles  which  legislators  are  continually  put 
ting  in  their  way  ;  and,  if  one  were  to  judge  these  men 
wholly  by  the  effects  of  their  actions  and  not  partly  by 
their  intentions,  they  would  deserve  to  be  classed  and 
punished  with  those  mischievous  persons  who  put  ob 
structions  on  the  railroads.  , 

But,  to  speak  practically  and  as  a  citizen,  unlike  those 
who  call  themselves  no-government  men/JLjajsk  for,  not 
at  once  no  government,  but  at  once  a  better  government.  7 
Let  every  man  make  known  what  kind  of  government 
would  command  his  respect,  and  that  will  be  one  step 
toward  obtaining  it. 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  125 

After  all,  the  practical  reason  why,  when  the  power 
is  once  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  a  majority  are  per 
mitted,  and  for  a  long  period  continue,  to  rule,  is  not 
because  they  are  most  likely  to  be  in  the  right,  nor  be 
cause  this  seems  fairest  to  the  minority,  but  because  they 
are  ^physically  the  strongest,  jQBut  a  government  in 
which  the  majority  rule  in  all  cases  cannot  be  based  on 
justice,  even  as  far  as  men  understand  it.  Can  there 
not  be  a  government  in  which  majorities  do  not  virtually 
decide  right  and  wrong,  but  conscience  ?  —  in  which  ma 
jorities  decide  only  those  questions  to  which  the  rule  of 
expediency  is  applicable  ?  Must  the  citizen  ever  for  a 
moment,  or  in  the  least  degree,  resign  his  conscience  to 
the  legislator  ?  Why  has  every  man  a  conscience, 
then  ?  I  think  that  we  should  be  men  first,  and  subjects* 
afterward.  It  is  not  desirable  to  cultivate  a  respect  for 
the  law,  so  much  as  for  the  right.  The  only  obligation 
which  I  have  a  right  to  assume,  is  to  do  at  any  time 
what  I  think  right]  It  is  truly  enough  said,  that  a  cor 
poration  has  no  conscience ;  but  a  corporation  of  con 
scientious  men  is  a  corporation  with  a  conscience.^1  Law 
never  made  men  a  whit  more  just ;  and,  by  means  of 
their  respect  for  it,  even  the  well-disposed  are  daily 
made  the  agents  of  injustice^  A  common  and  natural 
result  of  an  undue  respect  "for  law  is,  that  you  may  see 
a  file  of  soldiers,  colonel,  captain,  corporal,  privates, 
powder-monkeys,  and  all,  marching  in  admirable  order 
over  hill  and  dale  to  the  wars,  against  their  wills,  ay, 
against  their  common  sense  and  consciences,  which  makes 
it  very  steep  marching  indeed,  and  produces  a  palpi 
tation  of  the  heart.  They  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  a 
damnable  business  in  which  they  are  concerned ;  they 
are  all  peaceably  inclined.  Now,  what  are  they  ?  Men 


i 


126  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

at  all  ?  or  small  movable  forts  and  magazines,  at  the 
service  of  some  unscrupulous  man  in  power  ?  Visit  the 
Navy- Yard,  and  behold  a  marine,  such  a  man  as  an 
American  government  can  make,  or  such  as  it  can  make 
a  man  with  its  black  arts,  —  a  mere  shadow  and  reminis 
cence  of  humanity,  a  man  laid  out  alive  and  standing, 
and  already,  as  one  may  say,  buried  under  arms  with 
funeral  accompaniments,  though  it  may  be,  — 

"  Not  a  drum  was  heard,  not  a  funeral  note, 
As  his  corse  to  the  rampart  we  hurried ; 
Not  a  soldier  discharged  his  farewell  shot 
O'er  the  grave  where  our  hero  we  buried." 

The  mass  of  men  serve  the  state  thus,  not  as  men 
mainly,  but  as  machines,  with  their  bodies.  ^They  are 
the  standing  army,  and  the  militia,  jailers,  constables, 
posse  comitatus,  &c.  In  most  cases  there  is  no  free  exer 
cise  whatever  of  the  judgment  or  of  the  moral  sense  ; 
but  they  put  themselves  on  a  level  with  wood  and  earth 
and  stones ;  and  wooden  men  can  perhaps  be  manu 
factured  that  will  serve  the  purpose  as  well.  Such  com 
mand  no  more  respect  than  men  of  straw  or  a  lump  of  dirt. 
They  have  the  same  sort  of  worth  only  as  horses  and 
dogs.  Yet  such  as  these  even  are  commonly  esteemed 
good  citizens.  Others,  —  as  most  legislators,  politicians, 
lawyers,  ministers,  and  office-holders,  —  serve  the  state 
chiefly  with  their  heads  ;  and,  as  they  rarely  make  any 
moral  distinctions,  they  are  as  Jikely  to  serve  the  Devil, 
without  intending  it,  as  God.^  A  very  few,  as  heroes, 
/patriots,  martyrs,  reformers  in  the  great  sense,  and  men, 
•  serve  the  state  with  their  consciences  also,  and  so  neces 
sarily  resist  it  for  the  most  part;  and  they  are  commonly 
treated  as  enemies  by  it.  A  wise  man  will  only  be 
useful  as  a  man,  and  will  not  submit  to  be  "  clay,"  and 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  127 

"stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away,"  but  leave  that 
office  to  his  dust  at  least :  — 

"  I  am  too  high-born  to  be  propertied, 
To  be  a  secondary  at  control, 

Or  useful  serving-man  and  instrument  ^r 

To  any  sovereign  state  throughout  the  world." 

He  who  gives  himself  entirely  to  his  fellow-men 
appears  to  them  useless  and  selfish ;  but  he  who  gives 
himself  partially  to  them  is  pronounced  a  benefactor  and 
philanthropist. 

How  does  it  become  a  man  to  behave  toward  this 
American  government  to-day  ?  I  answer,  that  he  can 
not  without  disgrace  be  associated  with  it.^J[  cannot  for 
an  instant  recognize  that  political  organization  as  my 
government  which  is  the  slave's  government  alsol?  C/ 

All  men  recognize  the  right  of  revolution  ;  tnlit  is,  the 
right  to  refuse  allegiance  to,  and  to  resist,  the  govern 
ment,  when,  its  tyranny  or  its  inefficiency  are  great  and 
unendurable,  J  But  almost  all  say  that  such  is  not  the  case 
now.  But  such  was  the  case,  they  think,  in  the  Revo 
lution  of  '75.  If  one  were  to  tell  me  that  this  was  a  bad 
government  because  it  taxed  certain  foreign  commodities 
brought  to  its  ports,  it  is  most  probable  that  I  should  not 
make  an  ado  about  it,  for  I  can  do  without  them.  All 
machines  have  their  friction ;  and  possibly  this  does 
enough  good  to  counterbalance  the  evil.  At  any  rate, 
it  is  a  great  evil  to  make  a  stir  about  it.  ^J3ut  when 
the  friction  comes  to  have  its  machine,  and  oppression 
and  robbery  are  organized,  I  say,  let  us  not  have  such  a 
machine  any  longer??  In  other  words,  when  a  sixth  of 
the  population  of  a  nation  which  has  undertaken  to  be 
the  refuge  of  liberty  are  slaves,  and  a  whole  country  is 
unjustly  overrun  and  conquered  by  a  foreign  army,  and 


128  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

subjected  to  military  law,  I  think  that  it  is  not  too  soon 
for  honest  men  to  rebel  and  revolutionize.  What  makes 
this  duty  the  more  urgent  is  the  fact,  that  the  country  so 
overrun  is  not  our  own,  but  ours  is  the  invading  army. 

Paley,  a  common  authority  with  many  on  moral  ques 
tions,  in  his  chapter  on  the  "  Duty  of  Submission  to 
Civil  Government,"  resolves  all  civil  obligation  into  ex 
pediency  ;  and  he  proceeds  to  say,  "  that  so  long  as  the 
interest  of  the  whole  society  requires  it,  that  is,  so  long 
as  the  established  government  cannot  be  resisted  or 
changed  without  public  inconveniency,  it  is  the  will  of 
God  that  the  established  government  be  obeyed,  and  no 

longer This  principle  being  admitted,  the  justice 

of  every  particular  case  of  resistance  is  reduced  to  a 
computation  of  the  quantity  of  the  danger  and  grievance 
on  the  one  side,  and  of  the  probability  and  expense  of 
redressing  it  on  the  other."  Of  this,  he  says,  every  man 
shall  judge  for  himself.  But  Paley  appears  never  to 
have  contemplated  those  cases  to  which  the  rule  of  ex 
pediency  does  not  apply,  in  which  a  people,  as  well  as 
an  individual,  must  do  justice,  cost  what  it  may.  If  I 
have  unjustly  wrested  a  plank  from  a  drowning  man, 
I  must  restore  it  to  him  though  I  drown  myself.  This, 
according  to  Paley,  would  be  inconvenient.  But  he 
that  would  save  his  life,  in  such  a  case,  shall  lose  it. 
This  people  must  cease  to  hold  slaves,  and  to  make  war 
on  Mexico,  though  it  cost  them  their  existence  as  a  peo 
ple. 

In  their  practice,  nations  agree  with  Paley ;  but  does 
any  one  think  that  Massachusetts  does  exactly  what  is 
right  at  the  present  crisis  ? 

"  A  drab  of  state,  a  cloth-o'-silver  slut, 
To  have  her  train  borne  up,  and  her  soul  trail  in  the  dirt." 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  129 

Practically  speaking,  the  opponents  to  a  reform  in 
Massachusetts  are  not  a  hundred  thousand  politicians 
at  the  South,  but  a  hundred  thousand  merchants  and 
farmers  here,  who  are  more  interested  in  commerce  and 
agriculture  than  they  are  in  humanity,  and  are  not  pre 
pared  to  do  justice  to  the  slave  and  to  Mexico,  cost  what 
it  may.  \J.  quarrel  not  with  far-off  foes,  but  with  those 
who,  near  at  home,  co-operate  with,  and  do  the  bidding 
of,  those  far  away,  and  without  whom  the  latter  would 
be  harmless^  We  are  accustomed  to  say,  that  the  mass 
of  men  are  unprepared ;  but  improvement  is  slow,  be 
cause  the  few  are  not  materially  wiser  or  better  than, 
the  many.  It  is  not  so  important  that  many  should  be 
as  good  as  you,  as  that  there  be  some  absolute  good 
ness  somewhere ;  for  that  will  leaven  the  whole  lump, 
e  are  thousands  who  are  in  opinion  opposed  to 
slavery  and  to  the  war,  who  yet  in  effect  do  nothing  to 
put  an  end  to  them ;  who,  esteeming  themselves  children 
of  Washington  and  Franklin,  sit  down  with  their  hands 
in  their  pockets,  and  say  that  they  know  not  what  to  do, 
and  do  nothing;  who  even  postpone  the  question  of  free 
dom  to  the  question  of  free-trade,  and  quietly  read  the 
prices-current  along  with'  the  latest  advices  from  Mexico, 
after  dinner,  and,  it  may  be,  fall  asleep  over  them  both. 
What  is  the  price-current  of  an  honest  man  and  patriot 
to-day  ?  ^They  hesitate,  and  they  regret,  and  sometimes 
they  petition  ;  but  they  do  nothing  in  earnest  and  with 
effect.  They  will  wait,  well  disposed,  for  others  to 
remedy  the  evil,  that  they  may  no  longer  have  it  to 
regret-^xAt  most,  they  give  only  a  cheap  vote,  and  a 
feeble  countenance  and  God-speed,  to  the  right,  as  it 
goes  by  them.  There  are  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
patrons  of  virtue  to  one  virtuous  man.^But  it  is  easier 
6*  i 


130  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

to  deal  with  the  real  possessor  of  a  thing  than  with  the 
temporary  guardian  of  it. 

All  voting  is  a  sort  of  gaming,  like  checkers  or  back 
gammon,  with  a  slight  moral  tinge  to  it,  a  playing  with 
right  and  wrong,  with  moral  questions  ;  and  betting  nat 
urally  accompanies  it.  The  character  of  the  voters  is 
not  staked,  (j^cast  my  vote,  perchance,  as  I  think  right ; 
but  I  am  not  vitally  concerned  that  that  right  should 
prevail.,-*  I  am  willing  to  leave  it  to  the  majority.  Its 
obligation,  therefore,  never  exceeds  that  of  expediency. 
Even  voting  for  the  right  is  doing  nothing  for  it.  It  is 
only  expressing  to  men  feebly  your  desire  that  it  should 
prevail.  (A  wise  man  will  not  leave  the  right  to  the 
mercy  of  chance,  nor  wish  it  to  prevail  through  the 
power  of  the  majority^  There  is  but  little  virtue  in  the 
action  of  masses  of  men.  When  the  majority  shall  at 
length  vote  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  it  will  be  because 
they  are  indifferent  to  slavery,  or  because  there  is  but 
little  slavery  left  to  be  abolished  by  their  vote.  They 
will  then  be  the  only  slaves.  Only  his  vote  can  hasten 
the  abolition  of  slavery  who  asserts  his  own  freedom  by 
his  vote. 

I  hear  of  a  convention  to  be  held  at  Baltimore,  or 
elsewhere,  for  the  selection  of  a  candidate  for  the  Presi 
dency,  made  up  chiefly  of  editors,  and  men  who  are 
politicians  by  profession ;  but  I  think,  what  is  it  to  any 
independent,  intelligent,  and  respectable  man  what  deci 
sion  they  may  come  to  ?  Shall  we  not  have  the  advantage 
of  his  wisdom  and  honesty,  nevertheless  ?  Can  we  not 
count  upon  some  independent  votes  ?  Are  there  not 
many  individuals  in  the  country  who  do  not  attend  con 
ventions  ?  But  no  :  I  find  that  the  respectable  man,  so 
called,  has  immediately  drifted  from  his  position,  and 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  131 

despairs  of  his  country,  when  his  country  has  more  rea 
son  to  despair  of  him.  He  forthwith  adopts  one  of  the 
candidates  thus  selected  as  the  only  available  one,  thus 
proving  that  he  is  himself  available  for  any  purposes  of 
the  demagogue.  His  vote  is  of  no  more  worth  than  that 
of  any  unprincipled  foreigner  or  hireling  native,  who 
may  have  been  bought.  O  for  a  man  who  is  a  man, 
and,  as  my  neighbor  says,  has  a  bone  in  his  back  which 
you  cannot  pass  your  hand  through  !  Our  statistics  are 
at  fault :  the  population  has  been  returned  too  large. 
How  many  men  are  there  to  a  square  thousand  miles  in 
this  country  ?  Hardly  one.  Does  not  America  offer 
any  inducement  for  men  to  settle  here  ?  The  American 
has  dwindled  into  an  Odd  Fellow,  —  one  who  may  be 
known  by  the  development  of  his  organ  of  gregarious- 
ness,  and  a  manifest  lack  of  intellect  and  cheerful  self- 
reliance  ;  whose  first  and  chief  concern,  on  coming  into 
the  world,  is  to  see  that  the  Almshouses  are  in  good 
repair ;  and,  before  yet  he  has  lawfully  donned  the  virile 
garb,  to  collect  a  fund  for  the  support  of  the  widows 
and  orphans  that  may  be ;  who,  in  short,  ventures  to 
live  only  by  the  aid  of  the  Mutual  Insurance  company, 
•which  has  promised  to  bury  him  decently. 

ClJJis  not  a  man's  duty,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  devote 
himself  to  the  eradication  of  any,  even  the  most  enor 
mous  wrong ;  he  may  still  properly  have  other  concerns 
to  engage  him ;  but  it  is  his  duty,  at  least,  to  wash  his 
hands  of  it,  and,  if  he  gives  it  no  thought  longer,-  not  to 
give  it  practically  his  supporj?  If  I  devote  myself  to 
other  pursuits  and  contemplations,  I  must  first  see,  at 
least,  that  I  do  not  pursue  them  sitting  upon  another 
man's  shoulders.  I  must  get  off  him  first,  that  he  may 
pursue  his  contemplations  too.  See  what  gross  incon- 


132  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

sistency  is  tolerated.  I  have  heard  some  of  my  towns 
men  say,  "  I  should  like  to  have  them  order  me  out  to 
help  put  down  an  insurrection  of  the  slaves,  or  to  march 
to  Mexico ;  —  see  if  I  would  go  " ;  and  yet  these  very 
men  have  each,  directly  by  their  allegiance,  and  so 
indirectly,  at  least,  by  their  money,  furnished  a  sub 
stitute.  The  soldier  is  applauded  who  refuses  to  serve 
in  an  unjust  war  by  those  who  do  not  refuse  to  sustain 
the  unjust  government  which  makes  the  war ;  is  applaud 
ed  by  those  whose  own  act  and  authority  he  disregards 
and  sets  at  naught ;  as  if  the  State  were  penitent  to  that 
degree  that  it  hired  one  to  scourge  it  while  it  sinned,  but 
not  to  that  degree  that  it  left  off  sinning  for  a  moment. 
(TFhus,  under  the  name  of  Order  and  Ci\7il  Government, 
we  are  all  made,  at  last  to  pay  homage  to  and  support 
our  own  meanness^  After  the  first  blush  of  sin  comes  its 
indifference  ;  and  from  immoral  it  becomes,  as  it  were, 
wwmoral,  and  not  quite  unnecessary  to  that  life  which 
we  have  made. 

The  broadest  and  most  prevalent  error  requires  the 
most  disinterested  virtue  to  sustain  it.  The  slight  re 
proach  to  which  the  virtue  of  patriotism  is  commonly 
liable,  the  noble  are  most  likely  to  incur.  ^Those  who, 
while  they  disapprove  of  the  character  and  measures  of 
a  government,  yield  to  it  their  allegiance  and  support, 
are  undoubtedly  its  most  conscientious  supporters,  and 
so  frequently  the  most  serious  obstacles  to  reform. 
Some  are  petitioning  the  State  to  dissolve  the  Union,  to 
disregard  the  requisitions  of  the  President.  Why  do 
they  not  dissolve  it  themselves,  —  the  union  between 
themselves  and  the  State,  —  and  refuse  to  pay  their 
quota  into  its  treasury  T)  Do  not  they  stand  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  State,  that  the  State  does  to  the  Union  ? 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  133 

And  have  not  the  same  reasons  prevented  the  State 
from  resisting  the  Union,  which  have  prevented  them 
from  resisting  the  State  ? 

How  can  a  man  be  satisfied  to  entertain  an  opinion 
merely,  and  enjoy  it  ?  Is  there  any  enjoyment  in  it,  if 
his  opinion  is  that  he  is  aggrieved  ?  If  you  are  cheated 
out  of  a  single  dollar  by  your  neighbor,  you  do  not  rest 
satisfied  with  knowing  that  you  are  cheated,  or  with 
paying  that  you  are  cheated,  or  even  with  petitioning 
him  to  pay  you  your  due ;  but  you  take  effectual  steps 
at  once  to  obtain  the  full  amount,  and  see  that  you 
are  never  cheated  again.  Action  from  principle,  the 
perception  and  the  performance  of  right,  changes  things 
and  relations ;  it  is  essentially  revolutionary,  and  does 
not  consist  wholly  with  anything  which  was.  It  not 
only  divides  states  and  churches,  it  divides  families ;  ay, 
it  divides  the  individual,  separating  the  diabolical  in  him 
from  the  divine. 

* Unjust  laws  exist:  shall  we  be  content  to  obey  them, 
or  shall  we  endeavor  to  amend  them,  and  obey  them 
until  we  have  succeeded,  or  shall  we  transgress  them  at 
oncer^'Men  generally,  under  such  a  government  as  this, 
think  that  they  ought  to  wait  until  they  have  persuaded 
the  majority  to  alter  them.  vThey  think  that,  if  they 
should  resist,  the  remedy  would  be  worse  than  the  evil. 
But  it  is  the  fault  of  the  government  itself  that  the  rem 
edy  is  worse  than  the  evil)  It  makes  it  worse.  Why 
is  it  not  more  apt  to  anticipate  and  provide  for  reform  ? 
Why  does  it  not  cherish  its  wise  minority  ?  I  Why  does 
it  cry  and  resist  before  it  is  hurt?  Whyaoes  it  not 
encourage  its  citizens  to  be  on  the  alert  to  point  out 
its  faults,  and  do  better  than  it  would  have  themV 
Why  does  it  always  crucify  Christ,  and  excommunicate 


134  CIVIL   DISOBEDIENCE. 

Copernicus   and    Luther,    and    pronounce   Washington 
and  Franklin  rebels  ? 

One  would  think,  that  a  deliberate  and  practical  denial 
of  its.  authority  was  the  only  offence  never  contemplated 
by  government ;  else,  why  has  it  not  assigned  its  definite, 
its  suitable  and  proportionate  penalty  ?  If  a  man  who 
has  no  property  refuses  but  once  to  earn  nine  shillings 
for  the  State,  he  is  put  in  prison  for  a  period  unlimited 
by  any  law  that  I  knoAV,  and  determined  only  by  the  dis 
cretion  of  those  who  placed  him  there ;  but  if  he  should 
steal  ninety  times  nine  shillings  from  the  State,  he  is 
soon  permitted  to  go  at  large  again. 

If  the  injustice  is  part  of  the  necessary  friction  of  the 
machine  of  government,  let  it  go,  let  it  go :  perchance 
it  will  wear  smooth,  —  certainly  the  machine  will  wear 
out.  If  the  injustice  has  a  spring,  or  a  pulley,  or  a  rope, 
or  a  crank,  exclusively  for  itself,  then  perhaps  you  may 
consider  whether  the  remedy  will  not  be  worse  than  the 
evil ;  but  if  it  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  requires  you  to 
be  the  agent  of  injustice  to  another,  then,  I  say,  break 
the  law.  Let  your  life  be  a  counter  friction  to  stop  the 
machine.  What  I  have  to  do  is  to  see,  at  any  rate,  that 

/ 1  do  not  lend  myself  to  the  wrong  which  I  condemn. 

SAs  for  adopting  the  ways  which  the  State  has  provided 
for  remedying  the  evil,  I  know  not  of  such  ways.  They 
take  too  much  time,  and  a  man's  life  will  be  goiie^  I  have 
other  affairs  to  attend  to.  I  came  into  this  world,  not 
chiefly  to  make  this  a  good  place  to  live  in,  but  to  live  in 
it,  be'  it  good  or  bad.  A  man  has  not  everything  to  do, 
but  something ;  and  oecause  he  cannot  do  everything,  it 
is  not  necessary  that  he  should  do  something  wrong.  It 
is  not  my  business  to  be  petitioning  the  Governor  or  the 

|  Legislature  any  more  than  it  is  theirs  to  petition  me ;  and, 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  135 

if  they  should  not  hear  my  petition,  what  should  I  do 
then  ?  But  in  this  case  the  State  has  provided  no  way : 
its  very  Constitution  is  the  evil.  This  may  seem  to  be 
harsh  and  stubborn  and  unconciliatory ;  but  it  is  to  treat 
with  the  utmost  kindness  and  consideration  the  only 
spirit  that  can  appreciate  or  deserves  it.  So  is  all  change 
for  the  better,  like  birth  and  death,  which  convulse  the 
body. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  those  who  call  themselves 
Abolitionists  should  at  once  effectually  withdraw  their 
support,  both  in  person  and  property,  from  the  govern 
ment  of  Massachusetts,  and  not  wait  till  they  constitute 
a  majority  of  one,  before  they  suffer  the  right  to  prevail 
through  them.  I  think  that  it  is  enough  if  they  have  God 
on  their  side,  without  waiting  for  that  other  one.  More 
over,  any  man  more  right  than  his  neighbors  constitutes 
a  majority  of  one  already. 

I  meet  this  American  government,  or  its  representa 
tive,  the  State  government,  directly,  and  face  to  face,  once 
a  year — no  more  —  in  the  person  of  its  tax-gatherer ;  this 
is  the  only  mode  in  which  a  man  situated  as  I  am  neces 
sarily  meets  it ;  and  it  then  says  distinctly,  Recognize 
me;  and  the  simplest,  the  most  effectual,  and,  in  the 
present  posture  of  affairs,  the  indispensablest  mode  of 
treating  with  it  on  this  head,  of  expressing  your  little  sat 
isfaction  with  and  love  for  it,  is  to  deny  it  then.  My 
civil  neighbor,  the  tax-gatherer,  is  the  very  man  I  have 
to  deal  with,  —  for  it  is,  after  all,  with  men  and  not  with 
parchment  that  I  quarrel,  —  and  he  has  voluntarily 
chosen  to  be  an  agent  of  the  government.  How  shall 
he  ever  know  well  what  he  is  and  does  as  an  officer  of  the 
government,  or  as  a  man,  until  he  is  obliged  to  consider 
whether  he  shall  treat  me,  his  neighbor,  for  whom  he 


136  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

has  respect,  as  a  neighbor  and  well-disposed  man,  or  as 
a  maniac  and  disturber  of  the  peace,  and  see  if  he  can 
get  over  this  obstruction  to  his  neighborliness  without  a 
ruder  and  more  impetuous  thought  or  speech  correspond 
ing  with  his  action.  I  know  this  well,  that  if  one  thou 
sand,  if  one  hundred,  if  ten  men  whom  I  could  name,  — 
if  ten  honest  men  only,  —  ay,  if  one  HONEST  man,  in  this 
State  of  Massachusetts,  ceasing  to  hold  slaves,  were  ac 
tually  to  withdraw  from  this  copartnership,  and  be  locked 
up  in  the  county  jail  therefor,  it  would  be  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  America.  For  it  matters  not  how  small 
the  beginning  may  seem  to  be :  what  is  once  well  done  is 
done  forever.  But  we  love  better  to  talk  about  it :  that 
we  say  is  our  mission.  Reform  keeps  many  scores  of  V 
newspapers  in  its  service,  but  not  one  man.  If  my  es 
teemed  neighbor,  the  State's  ambassador,  who  will  devote 
his  days  to  the  settlement  of  the  question  of  human 
rights  in  the  Council  Chamber,  instead  of  being  threat 
ened  with  the  prisons  of  Carolina,  were  to  sit  down  the 
prisoner  of  Massachusetts,  that  State  which  is  so  anxious 
to  foist  the  sin  of  slavery  upon  her  sister,  —  though  at 
present  she  can  discover  only  an  act  of  inhospitality  to 
be  the  ground  of  a  quarrel  with  her,  —  the  Legislature 
would  not  wholly  waive  the  subject  the  following  winter. 
Under  a  government  which  imprisons  any  unjustly, 
the  true  place  for  a  just  man  is  also  a  prison.  The 
proper  place  to-day,  the  only  place  which  Massachusetts 
has  provided  for  her  freer  and  less  desponding  spirits, 
is  nr  her  prisons,  to  be  put  out  and  locked  out  of  the 
State  by  her  own  act,  as  they  have  already  put  them 
selves  out  by  their  principles.  It  is  there  that  the 
fugitive  slave,  and  the  Mexican  prisoner  on  parole, 
and  the  Indian  come  to  plead  the  wrongs  of  his  race, 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  137 

should  find  them ;  on  that  separate,  but  more  free  and 
honorable  ground,  where  the  State  places  those  who  are 
not  with  her,  but  against  her,  —  the  only  house  in  a  slave  ^ 
State  in  which  a  free  man  can  abide  with  honor.f  If  any 
think  that  their  influence  would  be  lost  there,  and  their 
voices  no  longer  afflict  the  ear  of  the  State,  that  they 
would  not  be  as  an  enemy  within  its  walls,  they  do  not 
know  by  how  much  truth  is  stronger  than  error,  nor  how 
much  more  eloquently  and  effectively  he  can  combat  in 
justice  who  has  experienced  a  little  in  his  own  perstm. 
Cast  your  whole  vote,  not  a  strip  of  paper  merely,  but 
your  whole  influence.     A  minority  is  powerless  while  it  1 
conforms  to  the  majority ;  it  is  not  even  a  minority  then ;  .) 
but  it  is  irresistible  when  it  clogs  by  its  whole  weight. 
If  the  alternative  is  to  keep  all  just  men  in  prison,  or  give 
up  war  and  slavery,  the  State  will  not  hesitate  which  to  • 
choose,  Off  a  thousand  men  were  not  to  pay  their  tax- 
bills  this  year,  that  would  not  be  a  violent  and  bloody 
measure,  as  it  would  be  to  pay  them,  and  enable  the 
State  to  commit  violence  and  shed  innocent  blood.    This  ^ 
is,  in  fact,  the  definition  of  a  peaceable  revolution,  if  any 
such  is  possible?)   If  the  tax-gatherer,  or  any  other  pub 
lic  officer,  asks  me,  as  one  has  done,  "  But  what  shall  I 
do  ?  "  my  answer  is,  "  If  you  really  wish  to  do  anything, 
resign  your  office."    <®ien  the  subject  has  refused  alle-  ^ 
giance,  and  the  officer  has^esigned  his  office,  then  the  •*" 
revolution  is  accomplished^)    But  even   suppose  blood 
should  flow.     Is  there  not  a  sort  of  blood  shed  when  the 
conscience  is  wounded?     Through  this  wound  a  man's 
real  manhood  and  immortality  flow  out,  and  he  bleeds  to 
an  everlasting  death.     I  see  this  blood  flowing  now.          ^ 

I  have  contemplated  the  imprisonment  of  the  offender, 
rather  than  the  seizure  of  his  goods,  —  though  both  will 


138  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

serve  the  same  purpose,  —  because  they  who  assert  the 
purest  right,  and  consequently  are  most  dangerous  to  a 
corrupt  State,  commonly  have  not  spent  much  time  in  ac 
cumulating  property.  To  such  the  State  renders  compar 
atively  small  service,  and  a  slight  tax  is  wont  to  appear 
exorbitant,  particularly  if  they  are  obliged  to  earn  it  by 
special  labor  with  their  hands.  If  there  were  one  who 
lived  wholly  without  the  use  of  money,  the  State  itself 
would  hesitate  to  demand  it  of  him.  But  the  rich  man, 
—  not  to  make  any  invidious  comparison,  —  is  always 
sold  to  the  institution  which  makes  him  rich.  Absolutely 
speaking,  the  more  money,  the  less  virtue ;  for  money 
comes  between  a  man  and  his  objects,  and  obtains  them 
for  him ;  and  it  was  certainly  no  great  virtue  to  obtain 
it.  It  puts  to  rest  many  questions  which  he  would  other 
wise  be  taxed  to  answer ;  while  the  only  new  question 
which  it  puts  is  the  hard  but  superfluous  one,  how  to 
spend  it.  Thus  his  moral  ground  is  taken  from  under 
his  feet.  The  opportunities  of  living  are  diminished  in 
proportion  as  what  are  called  the  "  means  "  are  increased. 
The  best  thing  a  man  can  do  for  his  culture  when  he  is 
\s  rich  is  to  endeavor  to  carry  out  those  schemes  which  he 
entertained  when  he  was  poor.  Christ  answered  the 
Herodians  according  to  their  condition.  "  Show  me  the 
tribute-money,"  said  he ;  —  and  one  took  a  penny  out  of 
his  pocket ;  —  if  you  use  money  which  has  the  image 
of  Ca3sar  on  it,  and  which  he  has  made  current  and  val 
uable,  that  is,  if  you  are  men  of  the  State,  and  gladly 
enjoy  the  advantages  of  Cesar's  government,  then  pay 
him  back  some  of  his  own  when  he  demands  it ;  "  Render 
therefore  to  Ca3sar  that  which  is  Caesar's,  and  to  God 
those  things  which  are  God's,"  —  leaving  them  no  wiser 
than  before  as  to  which  was  which ;  for  they  did  not 
wish  to  know. 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  139 

;,  When  I  converse  with  the  freest  of  my  neighbors,  I 
perceive  that,  -whatever  they  may  say  about  the  magni 
tude  and  seriousness  of  the  question,  and  their  regard 
for  the  public  tranquillity,  the  long  and  the  short  of  the 
matter  is,  that  they  cannot  spare  the  protection  of  the 
existing  government,  and  they  dread  the  consequences 
to  their  property  and  families  of  disobedience  to  it. 
For  my  own  part,  I  should  not  like  to  tiring  that  I  ever 
rely  on  the  protection  of  the  State.  But,  if  I  deny  the  I/ 
authority  of  the  State  when  it  presents  its  tax-bill,  it  will 
soon  take  and  waste  all  my  property,  and  so  harass  me 
and  my  children  without  encfc\  This  "is  hard.  This 
makes  it  impossible  for  a  man  to  live  honestly,  and  at  the 
same  time  comfortably,  in  outward  respects.  It  will  not 
be  worth  the  while  to  accumulate  property ;  that  would 
be  sure  to  go  again.  You  must  hire  or  squat  somewhere, 
and  raise  but  a  small  crop,  and  eat  that  soon.  You 
must  live  within  yourself,  and  depend  upon  yourself 
always  tucked  up  and  ready  for  a  start,  and  not  have 
many  affairs.  *^A  man  may  grow  rich  in  Turkey  even, 
if  he  will  be  in  all  respects  a  good  subject  of  the  Turk 
ish  government.  Confucius  said :  "  If  a  state  is  gov 
erned  by  the  principles  of  reason,  poverty  and  misery 
are  subjects  of  shame ;  if  a  state  is  not  governed  by  ^. 
the  principles  of  reason,  riches  and  honors  are  the  sub 
jects  of  shame."  No :  until  I  want  the  protection  of 
Massachusetts  to  be  extended  to  me  in  some  distant 
Southern  port,  where  my  liberty  is  endangered,  or  until 
I  am  bent  solely  on  building  up  an  estate  at  home  by 
peaceful  enterprise,  I  can  afford  to  refuse  allegiance  to 
Massachusetts,  and  her  right  to  my  property  and  life. 
It  costs  me  less  in  every  sense  to  incur  the  penalty  of  **-* 
disobedience  to  the  State,  than  it  would  to  obey.  I 
should  feel  as  if  I  were  worth  less  in  that  case. 


140  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

Some  years  ago,  the  State  met  me  in  behalf  of  the 
Church,  and  commanded  me  to  pay  a  certain  sum  toward 
the  support  of  a  clergyman  whose  preaching  my  father 
attended,  but  never  I  myself.  "  Pay,"  it  said,  "  or  be 
locked  up  in  the  jail."  I  declined  to  pay.  But,  unfor 
tunately,  another  man  saw  fit  to  pay  it.  I  did  not  see 
why  the  schoolmaster  should  be  taxed  to  support  the 
priest,  and  not  the  priest  the  schoolmaster;  for  I  was 
not  the  State's  schoolmaster,  but  I  supported  myself  by 
voluntary  subscription.  I  did  not  see  why  the  lyceuin 
should  not  present  its  tax-bill,  and  have  the  State  to  back 
its  demand,  as  well  as  the  Church.  However,  at  the  re 
quest  of  the  selectmen,  I  condescended  to  make  some 
such  statement  as  this  in  writing :  —  "  Know  all  men  by 
these  presents,  that  I,  Henry  Thoreau,  do  not  wish  to 
be  regarded  as  a  member  of  any  incorporated  society 
which  I  have  not  joined."  This  I  gave  to  the  town  clerk; 
and  he  has  it.  The  State,  having  thus  learned  that  I 
did  not  wish  to  be  regarded  as  a  member  of  that  church, 
has  never  made  a  like  demand  on  me  since ;  though  it 
said  that  it  must  adhere  to  its  original  presumption  that 
time.  If  I  had  known  how  to  name  them,  I  should  then 
have  signed  off  in  detail  from  all  the  societies  which  I 
never  signed  on  to ;  but  I  did  not  know  where  to  find  a 
complete  list. 

I  have  paid  no  poll-tax  for  six  years.  I  was  put  into 
a  jail  once  on  this  account,  for  one  night ;  and,  as  I  stood 
considering  the  walls  of  solid  stone,  two  or  three  feet 
thick,  the  door  of  wood  and  iron,  a  foot  thick,  and  the 
iron  grating  which  strained  the  light,  I  could  not  help 
being  struck  with  the  foolishness  of  that  institution  which 
treated  me  as  if  I  were  mere  flesh  and  blood  and  bones,  to 
be  locked  up.  I  wondered  that  it  should  have  concluded 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  141 

at  length  that  this  was  the  best  use  it  could  put  me  to, 
and  had  never  thought  to  avail  itself  of  my  services  in 
some  way.  I  saw  that,  if  there  was  a  wall  of  stone  be 
tween  me  and  my  townsmen,  there  was  a  still  more  dif 
ficult  one  to  climb  or  break  through,  before  they  could 
get  to  be  as  free  as  I  was.  I  did  not  for  a  moment  feel 
confined,  and  the  walls  seemed  a  great  waste  of  stone  and 
mortar.  I  felt  as  if  I  alone  of  all  my  townsmen  had 
paid  my  tax.  They  plainly  did  not  know  how  to  treat 
me,  but  behaved  like  persons  who  are  underbred.  In 
every  threat  and  in  every  compliment  there  was  a  blun 
der  ;  for  they  thought  that  my  chief  desire  was  to  stand 
the  other  side  of  that  stone  wall.  I  could  not  but  smile 
to  see  how  industriously  they  locked  the  door  on  my 
meditations,  which  followed  them  out  again  without  let 
or  hindrance,  and  they  were  really  all  that  was  danger 
ous.  As  they  could  not  reach  me,  they  had  resolved  to 
punish  my  body ;  just  as  boys,  if  they  cannot  come  at 
some  person  against  whom  they  have  a  spite,  will  abuse 
his  dog.  I  saw  that  the  State  was  half-witted,  that  it 
was  timid  as  a  lone  woman  with  her  silver  spoons,  and 
that  it  did  not  know  its  friends  from  its  foes,  and  I  lost 
all  .my  remaining  respect  for  it,  and  pitied  it. 

Tims  the  State  never  intentionally  confronts  a  man's 
sense,  intellectual  or  moral,  but  only  his  body,  his  senses. 
It  is  not  armed  with  superior  wit  or  honesty,  but  with 
superior  physical  strengtl^  I  Avas  not  born  to  be  forced. 
I  will  breathe  after  my  own  fashion.  Let  us  see  who  ia 
the  strongest.  What  force  has  a  multitude  ?  They  only 
can  force  me  who  obey  a  higher  law  than  I.  They 
force  me  to  become  like  themselve^.  I  do  not  hear  of 
men  being  forced  to  live  this  way  or  that  by  masses  of 
men.  What  sort  of  life  were  that  to  live  ?  When  I 


142  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

meet  a  government  which  says  to  me,  "Your  money  or 
your  life,"  why  should  I  be  in  haste  to  give  it  my 
money  ?  It  may  be  in  a  great  strait,  and  not  know  what 
to  do :  I  cannot  help  that.  It  must  help  itself ;  do  as 
I  do.  It  is  not  worth  the  while  to  snivel  about  it.  I  am 
not  responsible  for  the  successful  working  of  the  ma 
chinery  of  society.  I  am  not  the  son  of  the  engineer. 
I  perceive  that,  when  an  acorn  and  a  chestnut  fall  side  s 
by  side,  the  one  does  not  remain  inert  to  make  way  for 
the  other,  but  both  obey  their  own  laws,  and  spring  and 
grow  and  flourish  as  best  they  can,  till  one,  perchance, 
overshadows  and  destroys  the  other.  If  a  plant  cannot 
live  according  to  its  nature,  it  dies ;  and  so  a  man. 

The  night  in  prison  was  novel  and  interesting  enough. 
The  prisoners  in  their  shirt-sleeves  were  enjoying  a  chat  and 
the  evening  air  in  the  doorway,  when  I  entered.  But  the 
jailer  said,  "  Come,  boys,  it  is  time  to  lock  up";  and  so  they 
dispersed,  and  I  heard  the  sound  of  their  steps  returning  into 
the  hollow  apartments.  My  room-mate  was  introduced  to 
me  by  the  jailer,  as  "  a  first-rate  fellow  and  a  clever  man:" 
When  the  door  was  locked,  he  showed  me  where  to  hang  my 
hat,  and  how  he  managed  matters  there.  The  rooms  were 
whitewashed  once  a  month ;  and  this  one,  at  least,  was  the 
whitest,  most  simply  furnished,  and  probably  the  neatest 
apartment  in  the  town.  He  naturally  wanted  to  know  where  - 
I  came  from,  and  what  brought  me  there ;  and,  when  I  had 
told  him,  I  asked  him  in  my  turn  how  lie  came  there,  presum 
ing  him  to  be  an  honest  man,  of  course ;  and,  as  the  world 
goes,  I  believe  he  was.  "  Why,"  said  he,  "  they  accuse  me 
of  burning  a  barn ;  but  I  never  did  it."  As  near  as  I  could 
discover,  he  had  probably  gone  to  bed  in  a  barn  Avhen 
drunk,  and  smoked  his  pipe  there  ;  and  so  a  barn  was  burnt. 
He  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  clever  man,  had  been  there 
some  three  months  waiting  for  his  trial  to  come  on,  and  would 
have  to  wait  as  much  longer ;  but  he  was  quite  domesticated 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  143 

and  contented,  since  he  got  his  board  for  nothing,  and  thought 
that  he  was  well  treated. 

lie  occupied  one  window,  and  I  the  other ;  and  I  saw,  that, 
if  one  stayed  there  long,  his  principal  business  would  be  to 
look  out  the  window.  I  had  soon  read  all  the  tracts  that 
were  left  there,  and  examined  where  former  prisoners  had 
broken  out,  and  where  a  grate  had  been  sawed  off,  and  heard 
the  history  of  the  various  occupants  of  that  room ;  for  I  found 
that  even  here  there  was  a  history  and  a  gossip  which  never 
circulated  beyond  the  walls  of  the  jail.  Probably  this  is  the 
only  -house  in  the  town  where  verses  are  composed,  which  are 
afterward  printed  in  a  circular  form,  but  not  published.  I 
was  shown  quite  a  long  list  of  verses  which  were  composed 
by  some  young  men  who  had  been  detected  in  an  attempt  to 
escape,  who  avenged  themselves  by  singing  them. 

I  pumped  my  fellow-prisoner  as  dry  as  I  could,  for  fear  I 
should  never  see  him  again ;  but  at  length  he  showed  me 
which  was  my  bed,  and  left  me  to  blow  out  the  lamp. 

It  was  like  travelling  into  a  far  country,  such  as  I  had 
never  expected  to  behold,  to  lie  there  for  one  night.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  I  never  had  heard  the  town-clock  strike  before, 
nor  the  evening  sounds  of  the  village ;  for  we  slept  with  the 
windows  open,  which  were  inside  the  grating.  It  was  to  see 
my  native  village  in  the  light  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  our 
Concord  was  turned  into  a  Rhine  stream,  and  visions  of 
knights  and  castles  passed  before  me.  They  were  the  voices 
of  old  burghers  that  I  heard  in  the  streets.  I  was  an  invol 
untary  spectator  and  auditor  of  whatever  was  done  and  said 
in  the  kitchen  of  the  adjacent  village-inn,  —  a  wholly  new 
and  rare  experience  to  me.  It  was  a  closer  view  of  my  na 
tive  town.  I  was  fairly  inside  of  it.  I  never  had  seen  its  in 
stitutions  before.  This  is  one  of  its  peculiar  institutions  ;  for 
it  is  a  shire  town.  I  began  to  comprehend  what  its  inhabi 
tants  were  about. 

In  the  morning,  our  breakfasts  were  put  through  the  hole 
in  the  door,  in  small  oblong-square  tin  pans,  made  to  fit,  and 
holding  a  pint  of  chocolate,  with  brown  bread,  and  an  iron 


144  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

spoon.  When  they  called  for  the  vessels  again,  I  was  green 
enough  to  return  what  bread  I  had  left;  but  my  comrade 
seized  it,  and  said  that  I  should  lay  that  up  for  lunch  or  din 
ner.  Soon  after  he  was  let  out  to  work  at  haying  in  a  neigh 
boring  field,  whither  he  went  every  day,  and  would  not  be 
back  till  noon  ;  so  he  bade  me  good-day,  saying  that  he 
doubted  if  he  should  see  me  again. 

When  I  came  out  of  prison,  —  for  some  one  interfered,  and 
paid  that  tax,  —  I  did  not  perceive  that  great  changes  had 
taken  place  on  the  common,  such  as  he  observed  who  went 
in  a  youth,  and  emerged  a  tottering  and  gray-headed  man ; 
and  yet  a  change  had  to  my  eyes  come  over  the  scene,  — 
the  town,  and  State,  and  country, — greater  than  any  that 
mere  time  could  effect.  I  saw  yet  more  distinctly  the  State 
in  which  I  lived.  - 1  saw  to  what  extent  the  people  among 
whom  I  lived  could  be  trusted  as  good  neighbors  and  friends ; 
that  their  friendship  was  for  summer  weather  only  ;  that  they 
did  not  greatly  propose  to  do  right ;  that  they  were  a  dis 
tinct  race  from  me  by  their  prejudices  and  superstitions,  as 
the  Chinamen  and  Malays  are ;  that,  in  their  sacrifices  to  hu 
manity,  they  ran  no  risks,  not  even  to  their  property ;  that, 
after  all,  they  were  not  so  noble  but  they  treated  the  thief  as 
he  had  treated  them,  and  hoped,  by  a  certain  outward  obser 
vance  and  a  few  prayers,  and  by  walking  in  a  particular 
straight  though  useless  path  from  time  to  time,  to  save  their 
souls.  This  may  be  to  judge  my  neighbors  harshly;  for  I 
believe  that  many  of  them  are  not  aware  that  they  have  such 
an  institution  as  the  jail  in  their  village. 

It  was  formerly  the  custom  in  our  village,  when  a  poor 
debtor  came  out  of  jail,  for  his  acquaintances  to  salute  him, 
looking  through  their  fingers,  which  were  crossed  to  repre 
sent  the  grating  of  a  jail  window,  "  How  do  ye  do  ?  "  My 
neighbors  did  not  thus  salute  me,  but  first  looked  at  me,  and 
then  at  one  another,  as  if  I  had  returned  from  a  long  journey. 
I  was  put  into  jail  as  I  was  going  to  the  shoemaker's  to  get  a 
shoe  which  was  mended.  When  I  was  let  out  the  next  morn 
ing,  I  proceeded  to  finish  my  errand,  and  having  put  on  my 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  145 

mended  shoe,  joined  a  huckleberry  party,  who  were  impa 
tient  to  put  themselves  under  my  conduct ;  and  in  half  an 
hour,  —  for  the  horse  was  soon  tackled,  —  was  in  the  midst 
of  a  huckleberry  field,  on  one  of  our  highest  hills,  two  miles 
off,  and  then  the  State  was  nowhere  to  be  seen. 
This  is  the  whole  history  of  "  My  Prisons." 

I  have  never  declined  paying  the  highway  tax,  because 
I  am  as  desirous  of  being  a  good  neighbor  as  I  am  of  being 
a  bad  subject ;  and,  as  for  supporting  schools,  I  am  doing 
my  part  to  educate  my  fellow-countrymen  now.  It  is 
for  no  particular  item  in  the  tax-bill  that  I  refuse  to  pay 
it.  I  simply  wish  to  refuse  allegiance  to  the  State,  to 
withdraw  and  stand  aloof  from  it  effectually!^  I  do  not 
care  to  trace  the  course  of  my  dollar,  if  I  could,  till  it  buys 
a  man  or  a  musket  to  shoot  one  with,  —  the  dollar  is  in 
nocent,  —  but  I  am  concerned  to  trace  the  effects  of  my 
allegiance.  (In  fact,  I  quietly  declare  war  with  the  State, 
after  my  fashion,  though  I  will  still  make  what  use  and 
get  what  advantage  of  her  I  can,  as  is  usual  in  such  case^V 

If  others  pay  the  tax  which  is  demanded  of  me,  from  a 
sympathy  with  the  State,  they  do  but  what  they  have  al 
ready  done  in  their  own  case,  or  rather  they  abet  injus 
tice  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  State  requires.  If  they 
pay  the  tax  from  a  mistaken  interest  in  the  individual 
taxed,  to  save  his  property,  or  prevent  his  going  to  jail, 
it  is  because  they  have  not  considered  wisely  how  far 
they  let  their  private  feelings  interfere  with  the  public 
good. 

This,  then,  is  my  position  at  present.  But  one  cannot 
be  too  much  on  his  guard  in  such  a  case,  lest  his  action 
be  biassed  by  obstinacy,  or  an  undue  regard  for  the  opin 
ions  of  men.  Let  him  see  that  he  does  only  what  be 
longs  to  himself  and  to  the  hour. 

7  j 


146  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

I  think  sometimes,  Why,  this  people  mean  well ; 
they  are  only  ignorant ;  they  would  do  better  if  they 
knew  how :  why  give  your  neighbors  this  pain  to  treat 
you  as  they  are  not  inclined  to  ?  But  I  think  again,  this 
is  no  reason  why  I  should  do  as  they  do,  or  permit 
others  to  suffer  much  greater  pain  of  a  different  kindN 
Again,  I  sometimes  say  to  myself,  When  many  millions 
of  men,  without  heat,  without  ill  will,  without  personal 
feeling  of  any  kind,  demand  of  you  a  few  shillings  only, 
without?  the  possibility,  such  is  their  constitution,  of  re 
tracting  or  altering  their  present  demand,  and  without 
the  possibility,  on  your  side,  of  appeal  to  any  other  mil 
lions,  why  expose  yourself  to  this  overwhelming  brute 
force  ?  You  do  not  resist  cold  and  hunger,  the  winds 
and  the  waves,  thus  obstinately ;  you  quietly  submit  to 
a  thousand  similar  necessities.  You  do  not  put  your 
head  into  the  fire.  But  just  in  proportion  as  I  regard 
this  as  not  wholly  a  brute  force,  but  partly  a  human, 
force,  and  consider  that  I  have  relations  to  those  mil 
lions  as  to  so  many  millions  of  men,  and  not  of  mere 
brute  or  inanimate  things,  I  see  that  appeal  is  possible, 
first  and  instantaneously,  from  them  to  the  Maker  of 
them,  and,  secondly,  from  them  to  themselves.  But,  if  I 
put  my  head  deliberately  into  the  fire,  there  is  no  appeal 
to  fire  or  to  the  Maker  of  fire,  and  I  have  only  myself 
to  blame.  If  I  could  convince  myself  that  I  have  any 
right  to  be  satisfied  with  men  as  they  are,  and  to  treat 
them  accordingly,  and  not  according,  in  some  respects,  to 
my  requisitions  and  expectations  of  what  they  and  I 
ought  to  be,  then,  like  a  good  Mussulman  and  fatalist,  I 
should  endeavor  to  be  satisfied  with  things  as  they  are, 
and  say  it  is  the  will  of  God.  And,  above  all?  there  is 
this  difference  between  resisting  this  and  a  purely  brute 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  147 

or  natural  force,  that  I  can  resist  this  with  some  effect ; 
but  I  cannot  expect,  like  Orpheus,  to  change  the  nature 
of  the  rocks  and  trees  and  beasts. 

I  do  not  wish  to  quarrel  with  any  man  or  nation.  I 
do  not  wish  to  split  hairs,  to  make  fine  distinctions,  or 
set  myself  up  as  better  than  my  neighbors.  I  seek 
rather,  I  may  say,  even  an  excuse  for  conforming  to  the 
laws  of  the  land.  I  am  but  too  ready  to  conform  to  them. 
Indeed,  I  have  reason  to  suspect  myself  on  this  head ; 
and  each  year,  as  the  tax-gatherer  comes  round,  I  find 
myself  disposed  to  review  the  acts  and  position  of  the 
general  and  State  governments,  and  the  spirit  of  the 
people,  to  discover  a  pretext  for  conformity. 

"  We  must  affect  oiir  country  as  our  parents ; 
And  if  at  any  time  we  alienate 
Our  love  or  industry  from  doing  it  honor, 
We  must  respect  effects  and  teach  the  soul 
Matter  of  conscience  and  religion, 
And  not  desire  of  rule  or  benefit." 

I  believe  that  the  State  will  soon  be  able  to  take  all  my 
work  of  this  sort  out  of  my  hands,  and  then  I  shall  be  no  / 
better  a  patriot  than  my  fellow-countrymen.  Seen  from 
a  lower  point  of  view,  the  Constitution,  with  all  its  faults, 
is  very  good ;  the  law  and  the  courts  are  very  respecta 
ble  ;  even  this  State  and  this  American  government  are, 
in  many  respects,  very  admirable  and  rare  things,  to  be 
thankful  for,  such  as  a  great  many  have  described  them  ; 
but  seen  from  a  point  of  view  a  little  higher,  they  are 
what  I  have  described  them ;  seen  from  a  higher  still, 
and  the  highest,  who  shall  say  what  they  are,  or  that 
they  are  worth  looking  at  or  thinking  of  at  all  ?  i/ 

(^However,  the  government  does  not  concern  me  much, 
and  I  shall  bestow  the  fewest  possible  thoughts  on  it.  It 
is  not  many  moments  that  I  live  under  a  government, 


148  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

even  in  this  world.  If  a  man  is  thought-free,  fancy- 
free,  imagination-free,  that  which  is  not  never  for  a  long 
time  appearing  to  be  to  him,  unwise  rulers  or  reformers 
\cannot  fatally  interrupt  him.^ 

I  know  that  most  men  think  differently  from  myself; 
but  those  whose  lives  are  by  profession  devoted  to  the 
study  of  these  or  kindred  subjects,  content  me  as  little  as 
any.  Statesmen  and  legislators,  standing  so  completely 
within  the  institution,  never  distinctly  and  nakedly  be 
hold  it.  They  speak  of  moving  society,  but  have  no 
resting-place  without  it.  They  may  be  men  of  a  certain 
experience  and  discrimination,  and  have  no  doubt  in 
vented  ingenious  and  even  useful  systems,  for  which  we 
sincerely  thank  them ;  but  all  their  wit  and  usefulness 
lie  within  certain  not  very  wide  limits.  They  are  wont 
to  forget  that  the  world  is  not  governed  by  policy  and 
expediency.  Webster  never  goes  behind  government, 
and  so  cannot  speak  with  authority  about  it.  His  words 
are  wisdom  to  those  legislators  who  contemplate  no 
essential  reform  in  the  existing  government ;  but  for 
thinkers,  and  those  who  legislate  for  all  time,  he  never 
once  glances  at  the  subject.  I  know  of  those  whose 
serene  and  wise  speculations  on  this  theme  would  soon 
reveal  the  limits  of  his  mind's  range  and  hospitality. 
Yet,  compared  with  the  cheap  professions  of  most  re 
formers,  and  the  still  cheaper  wisdom  and  eloquence  of 
politicians  in  general,  his  are  almost  the  only  sensible 
and  valuable  words,  and  we  thank  Heaven  for  him. 
Comparatively,  he  is  always  strong,  original,  and,  above 
all,  practical.  Still  his  quality  is  not  wisdom,  but  pru 
dence.  The  lawyer's  truth  is  not  Truth,  but  consistency, 
or  a  consistent  expediency.  Truth  is  always  in  harmony 
with  herself,  and  is  not  concerned  chiefly  to  reveal  the 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  149 

justice  that  may  consist  with  wrong- doing.  '  He  well 
deserves  to  be  called,  as  he  has  been  called,  the  De 
fender  of  the  Constitution.  There  are  really  no  blows 
to  be  given  by  him  but  defensive  ones.  He  is  not  a 
leader,  but  a  follower.  His  leaders  are  the  men  of  '87. 
"  I  have  never  made  an  effort,"  he  says,  "  and  never 
propose  to  make  an  effort ;  I  have  never  countenanced 
an  effort,  and  never  mean  to  countenance  an  effort,  to 
disturb  the  arrangement  as  originally  made,  by  which 
the  various  States  came  into  the  Union."  Still  thinking 
of  the  sanction  which  the  Constitution  gives  to  slavery, 
he  says,  "  Because  it  was  a  part  of  the  original  com 
pact,  —  let  it  stand."  Notwithstanding  his  special  acute- 
ness  and  ability,  he  is  unable  to  take  a  fact  out  of  its 
merely  political  relations,  and  behold  it  as  it  lies  abso 
lutely  to  be  disposed  of  by  the  intellect,  —  what,  for 
instance,  it  behooves  a  man  to  do  here  in  America  to 
day  with  regard  to  slavery,  but  ventures,  or  is  driven, 
to  make  some  such  desperate  answer  as  the  following, 
while  professing  to  speak  absolutely,  and  as  a  private 
man,  —  from  which  what  new  and  singular  code  of 
social  duties  might  be  inferred  ?  "  The  manner,"  says 
he,  "  in  which  the  governments  of  those  States  where 
slavery  exists  are  to  regulate  it,  is  for  their  own  con 
sideration,  under  their  responsibility  to  their  constituents, 
to  the  general  laws  of  propriety,  humanity,  and  justice, 
and  to  God.  Associations  formed  elsewhere,  springing 
from  a  feeling  of  humanity,  or  any  other  cause,  have 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it.  They  have  never  re 
ceived  any  encouragement  from  me,  and  they  never 
will."  * 

They   who  know  of  no  purer  sources  of  truth,  who 

*  These  extracts  have  been  inserted  since  the  Lecture  was  read. 


150  CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE. 

have  traced  up  its  stream  no  higher,  stand,  and  wisely 
stand,  by  the  Bible  and  the  Constitution,  and  drink  at  it 
there  with  reverence  and  humility  ;  but  they  who  behold 
where  it  comes  trickling  into  this  lake  or  that  pool,  gird 
up  their  loins  once  more,  and  continue  their  pilgrimage 
toward  its  fountain-head. 

\No  man  with  a  genius  for  legislation  has  appeared  in 
America^  They  are  rare  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
There  are  orators,  politicians,  and  eloquent  men,  by  the 
thousand ;  but  the  speaker  has  not  yet  opened  his  mouth 
to  speak,  who  is  capable  of  settling  the  much-vexed 
questions  of  the  day.  We  love  eloquence  for  its  own 
sake,  and  not  for  any  truth  which  it  may  utter,  or  any 
heroism  it  may  inspire.  £itH^- legislators  have  not  yet 
learned  the  comparative  value  of  free-trade  and  of  free 
dom,  of  union,  and  of  rectitude,  to  a  nation.  They  have 
no  genius  or  talent  for  comparatively  humble  questions 
of  taxation  and  finance,  commerce  and  manufactures  and 
agriculture.  If  we  were  left  solely  to  the  wordy  wit  of 
legislators  in  Congress  for  our  guidance,  uncorrected  by 
the  seasonable  experience  and  the  effectual  complaints 
of  the  people,  America  would  not  long  retain  her  rank 
among  the  nations.^  For  eighteen  hundred  years,  though 
perchance  I  havo/no  right  to  say  it,  the  New  Testament 
has  been  written  ;  yet  where  is  the  legislator  who  has 
wisdom  and  practical  talent  enough  to  avail  himself  of 
the  light  which  it  sheds  on  the  science  of  legislation  ? 

/The  authority  of  government,  even  such  as  I  am  will 
ing  to  submit  to,  —  for  I  will  cheerfully  obey  those  who 
know  and  can  do  better  than  I,  and  in  many  things  even 
those  who  neither  know  nor  can  do  so  well,  —  is  still  an 
impure  one :  to  be  strictly  just,  it  must  have  the  sanction 
and  consent  of  the  governed.  It  can  have  no  pure  right 


CIVIL  DISOBEDIENCE.  151 


over  my  person  and  property  but  what  I  concede  ton 
The  progress  from  an  absolute  to  a  limited  monarchy, 
from  a  limited  monarchy  to  a  democracy,  is  a  progress 
toward  a  true  respect  for  the  individual.  Even  the 
Chinese  philosopher  was  wise  enough  to  regard  the  indi 
vidual  as  the  basis  of  the  empire.  (^  a  democracy,  such 
as  we  know  it,  the  last  improvement  possible  in  govern 
ment  ?  Is  it  not  possible  to  take  a  step  further  towards 
recognizing  and  organizing  the  rights  of  man  ?  There 
will  never  be  a  really  free  and  enlightened  State,  until 
the  State  comes  to  recognize  the  individual  as  a  higher 
and  independent  power,  from  which  all  its  ownj^ower 
and  authority  are  derived,  and  treats  him  according!^  I 
please  myself  with  imagining  a  State  at  last  which  can 
afford  to  be  just  to  all  men,  and  to  treat  the  individual 
with  respect  as  a  neighbor ;  which  even  would  not  think 
it  inconsistent  with  its  own  repose,  if  a  few  were  to  live 
aloof  from  it,'  not  meddling  with  it,  nor  embraced  by  it, 
who  fulfilled  all  the  duties  of  neighbors  and  fellow-men. 
A  State  which  bore  this  kind  of  fruit,  and  suffered  it  to 
drop  off  as  fast  as  it  ripened,  would  prepare  the  way  for 
a  still  more  perfect  and  glorious  State,  which  also  I  have 
imagined,  but  not  yet  anywhere  seen. 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.* 


I  TRUST  that  you  will  pardon  me  for  being  here.  I 
do  not  wish  to  force  my  thoughts  upon  you,  but  I  feel 
forced  myself.  Little  as  I  know  of  Captain  Brown, 
I  would  fain  do  my  part  to  correct  the  tone  and  the 
statements  of  the  newspapers,  and  of  my  countrymen  gen 
erally,  respecting  his  character  and  actions.  It  costs  us 
nothing  to  be  just.  We  can  at  least  express  our  sympa 
thy  with,  and  admiration  of,  him  and  his  companions,  and 
that  is  what  I  now  propose  to  do. 

First,  as  to  his  history.  I  will  endeavor  to  omit,  as 
much  as  possible,  what  you  have  already  read.  I  need 
not  describe  his  person  to  you,  for  probably  most  of  you 
have  seen  and  will  not  soon  forget  him.  I  am  told  that 
his  grandfather,  John  Brown,  was  an  officer  in  the  Rev 
olution  ;  that  he  himself  was  born  in  Connecticut  about 
the  beginning  of  this  century,  but  early  went  with  his 
father  to  Ohio.  I  heard  him  say  that  his  father  was  a 
contractor  who  furnished  beef  to  the  army  there,  in  the 
war  of  1812  ;  that  he  accompanied  him  to  the  camp,  and 
assisted  him  in  that  employment,  seeing  a  good  deal  of  mil 
itary  life,  —  more,  perhaps,  than  if  he  had  been  a  soldier ; 
for  he  was  often  present  at  the  councils  of  the  officers.  Es 
pecially,  he  learned  by  experience  how  armies  are  supplied 

*  Read  to  the  citizens  of  Concord,  Mass.,  Sunday  Evening,  Octo 
ber  30, 1859. 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     153 

and  maintained  in  the  field,  —  a  work  which,  he  observed, 
requires  at  least  as  much  experience  and  skill  as  to  lead 
them  in  battle.  He  said  that  few  persons  had  any 
conception  of  the  cost,  even  the  pecuniary  cost,  of  firing 
a  single  bullet  in  war.  He  saw  enough,  at  any  rate,  to 
disgust  him  with  a  military  life ;  indeed,  to  excite  in  him 
a  great  abhorrence  of  it ;  so  much  so,  that  though  he 
was  tempted  by  the  offer  of  some  petty  office  in  the  army, 
when  he  was  about  eighteen,  he  not  only  declined  that, 
but  he  also  refused  to  train  when  warned,  and  was  fined 
for  it.  He  then  resolved  that  he  would  never  have  any 
thing  to  do  with  any  war,  unless  it  were  a  war  for  liberty. 

When  the  troubles  in  Kansas  began,  he  sent  several 
of  his  sons  thither  to  strengthen  the  party  of  the  Free 
State  men,  fitting  them  out  with  such  weapons  as  he  had ; 
telling  them  that  if  the  troubles  should  increase,  and  there 
should  be  need  of  him,  he  would  follow,  to  assist  them 
with  his  hand  and  counsel.  This,  as  you  all  know,  he 
soon  after  did ;  and  it  was  through  his  agency,  far  more 
than  any  other's,  that  Kansas  was  made  free. 

For  a  part  of  his  life  he  was  a  surveyor,  and  at  one  time 
he  was  engaged  in  wool-growing,  and  he  went  to  Europe 
as  an  agent  about  that  business.  There,  as  everywhere, 
he  had  his  eyes  about  him,  and  made  many  original  ob 
servations.  He  said,  for  instance,  that  he  saw  why  the 
soil  of  England  was  so  rich,  and  that  of  Germany  (I 
think  it  was)  so  poor,  and  he  thought  of  writing  to  some 
of  the  crowned  heads  about  it.  It  was  because  in  England 
the  peasantry  live  on  the  soil  which  they  cultivate,  but 
in  Germany  they  are  gathered  into  villages,  at  night. 
It  is  a  pity  that  he  did  not  make  a  book  of  his  observa 
tions. 

I  should  say  that  he  was  an  old-fashioned  man  in  his 
7* 


154     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

respect  for  the  Constitution,  and  his  faith  in  the  perma 
nence  of  this  Union.  Slavery  he  deemed  to  be  wholly 
opposed  to  these,  and  he  was  its  determined  foe. 

He  was  by  descent  and  birth  a  New  England  farmer, 
a  man  of  great  common-sense,  deliberate  and  practical 
as  that  class  is,  and  tenfold  more  so.  He  was  like  the 
best  of  those  who  stood  at  Concord  Bridge  once,  on 
Lexington  Common,  and  on  Bunker  Hill,  only  he  was 
firmer  and  higher  principled  than  any  that  I  have 
chanced  to  hear  of  as  there.  It  was  no  abolition  lecturer 
that  converted  him.  Ethan  Allen  and  Stark,  with 
whom  he  may  in  some  respects  be  compared,  were  ran 
gers  in  a  lower  and  less  important  field.  They  could 
bravely  face  their  country's  foes,  but  he  had  the  courage 
to  face  his  country  herself,  when  she  was  in  the  wrong. 
A  Western  writer  says,  to  account  for  his  escape  from 
so  many  perils,  that  he  was  concealed  under  a  "  rural 
exterior  " ;  as  if,  in  that  prairie  land,  a  hero  should,  by 
good  rights,  wear  a  citizen's  dress  only. 

He  did  not  go  to  the  college  called  Harvard,  good  old 
Alma  Mater  as  she  is.  He  was  not  fed  on  the  pap  that 
is  there  furnished.  As  he  phrased  it,  "  I  know  no  more 
of  grammar  than  one  of  your  calves."  But  he  went  to 
the  great  university  of  the  West,  where  he  sedulously 
pursued  the  study  of  Liberty,  for  which  he  had  early 
betrayed  a  fondness,  and  having  taken  many  degree?,  he 
finally  commenced  the  public  practice  of  Humanity  in 
Kansas,  as  you  all  know.  Such  were  his  humanities  and 
not  any  study  of  grammar.  He  would  have  left  a  Greek 
accent  slanting  the  wrong  way,  and  righted  up  a  falling 
man. 

He  was  one  of  that  class  of  whom  we  hear  a  great 
deal,  but;  for  the  most  part,  see  nothing  at  all,  —  the 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     155 

Puritans.  It  would  be  in  vain  to  kill  him.  He  died 
lately  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  but  he  reappeared  here. 
Why  should  he  not  ?  Some  of  the  Puritan  stock  are 
said  to  have  come  over  and  settled  in  New  England. 
They  were  a  class  that  did  something  else  than  celebrate 
their  forefathers'  day,  and  eat  parched  corn  in  remem 
brance  of  that  time.  They  were  neither  Democrats  nor 
Republicans,  but  men  of  simple  habits,  straightforward, 
prayerful ;  not  thinking  much  of  rulers  who  did  not  fear 
God,  not  making  many  compromises,  nor  seeking  after 
available  candidates. 

"  In  his  camp,"  as  one  has  recently  written,  and  as  I 
have  myself  heard  him  state,  "  he  permitted  no  profan 
ity  ;  no  man  of  loose  morals  was  suffered  to  remain  there, 
unless,  indeed,  as  a  prisoner  of  war.  '  I  would  rather, ' 
said  he,  '  have  the  small-pox,  yellow-fever,  and  cholera, 
all  together  in  my  camp,  than  a  man  without  principle. 
.  .  .  .  It  is  a  mistake,  sir,  that  our  people  make,  when 
they  think  that  bullies  are  the  best  fighters,  or  that  they 
are  the  fit  men  to  oppose  these  Southerners.  Give  me 
men  of  good  principles,  —  God-fearing  men,  —  men  who 
respect  themselves,  and  with  a  dozen  of  them  I  will  op 
pose  any  hundred  such  men  as  these  Buford  ruffians.' " 
He  said  that  if  one  offered  himself  to  be  a  soldier  under 
him,  who  was  forward  to  tell  what  he  could  or  would  do, 
if  he  could  only  get  sight  of  the  enemy,  he  had  but 
little  confidence  in  him. 

He  was  never  able  to  find  more  than  a  score  or  so  of 
recruits  whom  he  would  accept,  and  only  about  a  dozen, 
among  them  his  sons,  in  whom  he  had  perfect  faith. 
When  he  was  here,  some  years  ago,  he  showed  to  a  few  a 
little  manuscript  book,  —  his  "  orderly  book  "  I  think  he 
called  it,  —  containing  the  names  of  his  company  in  Kan- 


156     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

sas,  and  the  rules  by  which  they  bound  themselves ;  and 
he  stated  that  several  of  them  had  already  sealed  the 
contract  with  their  blood.  When  some  one  remarked  that, 
with  the  addition  of  a  chaplain,  it  would  have  been  a  per 
fect  Cromwellian  troop,  he  observed  that  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  add  a  chaplain  to  the  list,  if  he  could  have 
found  one  who  could  fill  that  office  worthily.  It  is 
easy  enough  to  find  one  for  the  United  States  army. 
I  believe  that  he  had  prayers  in  his  camp  morning  and 
evening,  nevertheless. 

He  was  a  man  of  Spartan  habits,  and  at  sixty  was 
scrupulous  about  his  diet  at  your  table,  excusing  himself 
by  saying  that  he  must  eat  sparingly  and  fare  hard,  as 
became  a  soldier,  or  one  who  was  fitting  himself  for 
difficult  enterprises,  a  life  of  exposure. 

A  man  of  rare  common-sense  and  directness  of  speech, 
as  of  action ;  a  transcendentalist  above  all,  a  man  of 
ideas  and  principles,  —  that  was  what  distinguished  him. 
Not  yielding  to  a  whim  or  transient  impulse,  but  carry 
ing  out  the  purpose  of  a  life.  I  noticed  that  he  did  not 
overstate  anything,  but  spoke  within  bounds.  I  re 
member,  particularly,  how,  in  his  speech  here,  he  re 
ferred  to  what  his  family  had  suffered  in  Kansas,  with 
out  ever  giving  the  least  vent  to  his  pent-up  fire.  It 
was  a  volcano  with  an  ordinary  chimney-flue.  Also 
referring  to  the  deeds  of  certain  Border  Ruffians,  he 
said,  rapidly  paring  away  his  speech,  like  an  experienced 
soldier,  keeping  a  reserve  of  force  and  meaning,  "  They 
had  a  perfect  right  to  be  hung."  He  was  not  in  the 
least  a  rhetorician,  was  not  talking  to  Buncombe  or  his 
constituents  anywhere,  had  no  need  to  invent  anything 
but  to  tell  the  simple  truth,  and  communicate  his  own 
resolution ;  therefore  he  appeared  incomparably  strong, 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     157 

and  eloquence  in  Congress  and  elsewhere  seemed  to  me 
at  a  discount.  It  was  like  the  speeches  of  Cromwell 
compared  with  those  of  an  ordinary  king. 

As  for  his  tact  and  prudence,  I  will  merely  say,  that 
at  a  time  when  scarcely  a  man  from  the  Free  States 
was  able  to  reach  Kansas  by  any  direct  route,  at  least 
without  having  his  arms  taken  from  him,  he,  carrying 
what  imperfect  guns  and  other  weapons  he  could  collect, 
openly  and  slowly  drove  an  ox-cart  through  Missouri, 
apparently  in  the  capacity  of  a  surveyor,  with  his  sur 
veying  compass  exposed  in  it,  and  so  passed  unsuspected, 
and  had  ample  opportunity  to  learn  the  designs  of  the 
enemy.  For  some  time  after  his  arrival  he  still  followed 
the  same  profession.  When,  for  instance,  he  saw  a  knot 
of  the  ruffians  on  the  prairie,  discussing,  of  course,  the  sin 
gle  topic  which  then  occupied  their  minds,  he  would,  per 
haps,  take  his  compass  and  one  of  his  sons,  and  proceed  to 
run  an  imaginary  line  right  through  the  very  spot  on 
which  that  conclave  had  assembled,  and  when  he  came 
up  to  them,  he  would  naturally  pause  and  have  some  talk 
with  them,  learning  their  news,  and,  at  last,  all  their 
plans  perfectly ;  and  having  thus  completed  his  real  sur 
vey  he  would  resume  his  imaginary  one,  and  run  on  his 
line  till  he  was  out  of  sight. 

When  I  expressed  surprise  that  he  could  live  in  Kan 
sas  at  all,  with  a  price  set  upon  his  head,  and  so  large  a 
number,  including  the  authorities,  exasperated  against 
him,  he  accounted  for  it  by  saying,  "  It  is  perfectly  well 
understood  that  I  will  not  be  taken."  Much  of  the  time 
for  some  years  he  has  had  to  skulk  in  swamps,  suffering 
from  poverty  and  from  sickness,  which  was  the  con 
sequence  of  exposure,  befriended  only  by  Indians  and 
a  few  whites.  But  though  it  might  be  known  that  he 


158     A  PLEA  FOB  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

was  lurking  in  a  particular  swamp,  his  foes  commonly 
did  not  care  to  go  in  after  him.  He  could  even  come 
out  into  a  town  where  there  were  more  Border  Ruffians 
than  Free  State  men,  and  transact  some  business,  without 
delaying  long,  and  yet  not  be  molested;  for,  said  he,  "No 
little  handful  of  men  were  willing  to  undertake  it,  and  a 
large  body  could  not  be  got  together  in  season." 

As  for  his  recent  failure,  we  do  not  know  the  facts 
about  it.  It  was  evidently  far  from  being  a  wild  and 
desperate  attempt.  His  enemy,  Mr.  Vallandigham,  is 
compelled  to  say,  that  "  it  was  among  the  best  planned 
and  executed  conspiracies  that  ever  failed." 

Not  to  mention  his  other  successes,  was  it  a  failure, 
or  did  it  show  a  want  of  good  management,  to  deliver 
from  bondage  a  dozen  human  beings,  and  walk  off  with 
them  by  broad  daylight,  for  weeks  if  not  months,  at  a 
leisurely  pace,  through  one  State  after  another,  for  half 
the  length  of  the  North,  conspicuous  to  all  parties,  with 
a  price  set  upon  his  head,  going  into  a  court-room  on  his 
way  and  telling  what  he  had  done,  thus  convincing  Mis 
souri  that  it  was  not  profitable  to  try  to  hold  slaves  in 
his  neighborhood  ?  —  and  this,  not  because  the  govern 
ment  menials  were  lenient,  but  because  they  were  afraid 
of  him. 

Yet  he  did  not  attribute  his  success,  foolishly,  to  "  his 
star,"  or  to  any  magic.  He  said,  truly,  that  the  reason 
why  such  greatly  superior  numbers  quailed  before  him 
was,  as  one  of  his  prisoners  confessed,  because  they  lacked 
a  cause,  —  a  kind  of  armor  which  he  and  his  party  never 
lacked.  When  the  time  came,  few  men  were  found 
.willing  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  defence  of  what  they 
knew  to  be  wrong ;  they  did  not  like  that  this  should  be 
their  last  act  in  this  world. 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     159 

But  to  make  haste  to  his  last  act,  and  its  effects. 

The  newspapers  seem  to  ignore,  or  perhaps  are  really 
ingorant  of  the  fact,  that  there  are  at  least  as  many  as 
two  or  three  individuals  to  a  town  throughout  the  North 
who  think  much  as  the  present  speaker  does  about  him 
and  his  enterprise.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  they 
are  an  important  and  growing  party.  We  aspire  to  be 
something  more  than  stupid  and  timid  chattels,  pretend 
ing  to  read  history  and  our  Bibles,  but  desecrating  every 
house  and  every  day  we  breathe  in.  Perhaps  anxious 
politicians  may  prove  that  only  seventeen  white  men  and 
five  negroes  were  concerned  in  the  late  enterprise ;  but 
their  very  anxiety  to  prove  this  might  suggest  to  them 
selves  that  all  is  not  told.  Why  do  they  still  dodge  the 
truth  ?  They  are  so  anxious  because  of  a  dim  conscious 
ness  of  the  fact,  which  they  do  not  distinctly  face,  that  at 
least  a  million  of  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  United  States 
would  have  rejoiced  if  it  had  succeeded.  They  at 
most  only  criticise  the  tactics.  Though  we  wear  no 
crape,  the  thought  of  that  man's  position  and  probable 
fate  is  spoiling  many  a  man's  day  here  at  the  North  for 
other  thinking.  If  any  one  who  has  seen  him  here  can 
pursue  successfully  any  other  train  of  thought,  I  do  not 
know  what  he  is  made  of.  If  there  is  any  such  who 
gets  his  usual  allowance  of  sleep,  I  will  warrant  him  to 
fatten  easily  under  any  circumstances  which  do  not  touch 
his  body  or  purse.  I  put  a  piece  of  paper  and  a  pencil 
under  my  pillow,  and  when  I  could  not  sleep,  I  wrote  in 
the  dark. 

On  the  whole,  my  respect  for  my  fellow-men,  except 
as  one  may  outweigh  a  million,  is  not  being  increased 
these  days.  I  have  noticed  the  cold-blooded  way  in 
which  newspaper  writers  and  men  generally  speak  of 


160     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

this  event,  as  if  an  ordinary  malefactor,  though  one  of 
unusual  "  pluck,"  —  as  the  Governor  of  Virginia  is  re 
ported  to  have  said,  using  the  language  of  the  cock-pit, 
"  the  gamest  man  he  ever  saw,"  —  had  been  caught,  and 
were  about  to  be  hung.  He  was  not  dreaming  of  his 
foes  when  the  governor  thought  he  looked  so  brave.  It 
turns  what  sweetness  I  have  to  gall,  to  hear,  or  hear 
of,  the  remarks  of  some  of  my  neighbors.  When  we 
heard  at  first  that  he  was  dead,  one  of  my  townsmen 
observed  that  "  he  died  as  the  fool  dieth  "  ;  which,  par 
don  me,  for  an  instant  suggested  a  likeness  in  him  dying 
to  my  neighbor  living.  Others,  craven-hearted,  said 
disparagingly,  that  "  he  threw  his  life  away,"  because  he 
resisted  the  government.  Which  way  have  they  thrown 
their  lives,  pray?  —  such  as  would  praise  a  man  for 
attacking  singly  an  ordinary *band  of  thieves  or  mur 
derers.  I  hear  another  ask,  Yankee-like,  "  What  will 
he  gain  by  it  ?  "  as  if  he  expected  to  fill  his  pockets  by 
this  enterprise.  Such  a  one  has  no  idea  of  gain  but  in 
this  worldly  sense.  If  it  does  not  lead  to  a  "  surprise  " 
party,  if  he  does  not  get  a  new  pair  of  boots,  or  a  vote 
of  thanks,  it  must  be  a  failure.  "  But  he  won't  gain  any 
thing  by  it."  Well,  no,  I  don't  suppose  he  could  get 
four-and-sixpence  a  day  for  being  hung,  take  the  year 
round ;  but  then  he  stands  a  chance  to  save  a  consid 
erable  part  of  his  soul,  —  and  such  a  soul !  —  when  you 
do  not.  No  doubt  you  can  get  more  in  your  market  for 
a  quart  of  milk  than  for  a  quart  of  blood,  but  that  is 
not  the  market  that  heroes  carry  their  blood  to. 

Such  do  not  know  that  like  the  seed  is  the  fruit,  and 
that,  in  the  moral  world,  when  good  seed  is  planted, 
good  fruit  is  inevitable,  and  does  not  depend  on  our 
watering  and  cultivating ;  that  when  you  plant,  or  bury, 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     161 

a  hero  in  his  field,  a  crop  of  heroes  is  sure  to  spring  up. 
This  is  a  seed  of  such  force  and  vitality,  that  it  does  not 
ask  our  leave  to  germinate. 

The  momentary  charge  at  Balaclava,  in  obedience  to 
a  blundering  command,  proving  what  a  perfect  machine 
the  soldier  is,  has,  properly  enough,  been  celebrated  by 
a  poet  laureate ;  but  the  steady,  and  for  the  most  part 
successful,  charge  of  this  man,  for  some  years,  against 
the  legions  of  Slavery,  in  obedience  to  an  infinitely 
higher  command,  is  as  much  more  memorable  than  that, 
as  an  intelligent  and  conscientious  man  is  superior  to  a 
machine.  Do  you  think  that  that  will  go  unsung  ? 

"  Served  him  right,"  —  "A  dangerous  man,"  —  u  He  is 
undoubtedly  insane."  So  they  proceed  to  live  their  sane, 
and  wise,  and  altogether  admirable  lives,  reading  their 
Plutarch  a  little,  but  chiefly  pausing  at  that  feat  of  Put 
nam,  who  was  let  down  into  a  wolfs  den ;  and  in  this 
wise  they  nourish  themselves  for  brave  and  patriotic 
deeds  some  time  or  other.  The  Tract  Society  could 
afford  to  print  that  story  of  Putnam.  You  might  open 
the  district  schools  with  the  reading  of  it,  for  there  is 
nothing  about  Slavery  or  the  Church  in  it ;  unless  it 
occurs  to  the  reader  that  some  pastors  are  wolves  in 
sheep's  clothing.  "The  American  Board  of  Commis 
sioners  for  Foreign  Missions  "  even,  might  dare  to  pro 
test  against  that  wolf.  I  have  heard  of  boards,  and  of 
American  boards,  but  it  chances  that  I  never  heard  of 
this  particular  lumber  till  lately.  And  yet  I  hear  of 
Northern  men,  and  women,  and  children,  by  families, 
buying  a  "  life  membership  "  in  such  societies  as  these. 
A  life-membership  in  the  grave !  You  can  get  buried 
cheaper  than  that. 

Our  foes  are  in  our  midst  and  all  about  us.     There  is 


162     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

hardly  a  house  but  is  divided  against  itself,  for  our  foe  is 
the  all  but  universal  woodenness  of  both  head  and  heart, 
the  want  of  vitality  in  man,  which  is  the  effect  of  our  vice  ; 
and  hence  are  begotten  fear,  superstition,  bigotry,  perse 
cution,  and  slavery  of  all  kinds.  We  are  mere  figure 
heads  upon  a  hulk,  with  livers  in  the  place  of  hearts. 
The  curse  is  the  worship  of  idols,  which  at  length  changes 
the  worshipper  into  a  stone  image  himself;  and  the 
New-Englander  is  just  as  much  an  idolater  as  the  Hin 
doo.  This  man  was  an  exception,  for  he  did  not  set  up 
even  a  political  graven  image  between  him  and  his  God. 

A  church  that  can  never  have  done  with  excommuni 
cating  Christ  while  it  exists !  Away  with  your  broad 
and  flat  churches,  and  your  narrow  and  tall  churches ! 
Take  a  step  forward,  and  invent  a  new  style  of  out 
houses.  Invent  a  salt  that  will  save  you,  and  defend 
our  nostrils. 

The  modern  Christian  is  a  man  who  has  consented  to 
say  all  the  prayers  in  the  liturgy,  provided  you  will  let 
him  go  straight  to  bed  and  sleep  quietly  afterward.  All 
his  prayers  begin  with  "  Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep," 
and  he  is  forever  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  he 
shall  go  to  his  "  long  rest."  He  has  consented  to  per 
form  certain  old-established  charities,  too,  after  a  fashion, 
but  he  does  not  wish  to  hear  of  any  new-fangled  ones ;  he 
does  n't  wish  to  have  any  supplementary  articles  added 
to  the  contract,  to  fit  it  to  the  present  time.  He  shows 
the  whites  of  his  eyes  on  the  Sabbath,  and  the  blacks  all 
the  rest  of  the  week.  The  evil  is  not  merely  a  stagna 
tion  of  blood,  but  a  stagnation  of  spirit.  Many,  no 
doubt,  are  well  disposed,  but  sluggish  by  constitution  and 
by  habit,  and  they  cannot  conceive  of  a  man  who  is  act 
uated  by  higher  motives  than  they  are.  Accordingly 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     163 

they  pronounce  this  man  insane,  for  they  know  that  they 
could  never  act  as  he  does,  as  long  as  they  are  them 
selves. 

We  dream  of  foreign  countries,  of  other  times  and 
races  of  men,  placing  them  at  a  distance  in  history  or 
space ;  but  let  some  significant  event  like  the  present  oc 
cur  in  our  midst,  and  we  discover,  often,  this  distance  and 
this  strangeness  between  us  and  our  nearest  neighbors. 
TJiey  are  our  Austria?,  and  Chinas,  and  South  Sea  Islands. 
Our  crowded  society  becomes  well  spaced  all  at  once, 
clean  and  handsome  to  the  eye,  —  a  city  of  magnificent 
distances.  We  discover  why  it  was  that  we  never  got 
beyond  compliments  and  surfaces  with  them  before ;  we 
become  aware  of  as  many  versts  between  us  and  them 
as  there  are  between  a  wandering  Tartar  and  a  Chinese 
town.  The  thoughtful  man  becomes  a  hermit  in  the 
thoroughfares  of  the  market-place.  Impassable  seas 
suddenly  find  their  level  between  us,  or  dumb  steppes 
stretch  themselves  out  there.  It  is  the  difference  of  con 
stitution,  of  intelligence,  and  faith,  and  not  streams  and 
mountains,  that  make  the  true  and  impassable  boundaries 
between  individuals  and  between  states.  None  but  the 
like-minded  can  come  plenipotentiary  to  our  court. 

I  read  all  the  newspapers  I  could  get  within  a  week 
after  this  event,  and  I  do  not  remember  in  them  a  single 
expression  of  sympathy  for  these  men.  I  have  since 
seen  one  noble  statement,  in  a  Boston  paper,  not  editorial. 
Some  voluminous  sheets  decided  not  to  print  the  full  re 
port  of  Brown's  words  to  the  exclusion  of  other  matter. 
It  was  as  if  a  publisher  should  reject  the  manuscript  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  print  Wilson's  last  speech. 
The  same  journal  which  contained  this  pregnant  news, 
was  chiefly  filled,  in  parallel  columns,  with  the  reports 


164     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

of  the  political  conventions  that  were  being  held.  But 
the  descent  to  them  was  too  steep.  They  should  have 
been  spared  this  contrast,  —  been  printed  in  an  extra,  at 
least.  To  turn  from  the  voices  and  deeds  of  earnest 
men  to  the  cackling  of  political  conventions !  Office- 
seekers  and  speech-makers,  who  do  not  so  much  as  lay 
an  honest  egg,  but  wear  their  breasts  bare  upon  an  egg  of 
chalk !  Their  great  game  is  the  game  of  straws,  or  rather 
that  universal  aboriginal  game  of  the  platter,  at  which 
the  Indians  cried  hub,  bub  !  Exclude  the  reports  of  re 
ligious  and  political  conventions,  and  publish  the  words 
of  a  living  man. 

But  I  object  not  so  much  to  what  they  have  omitted, 
as  to  what  they  have  inserted.  Even  the  Liberator  called 
it  "  a  misguided,  wild,  and  apparently  insane  —  effort." 
As  for  the  herd  of  newspapers  and  magazines,  I  do 
not  chance  to  know  an  editor  in  the  country  who  will 
deliberately  print  anything  which  he  knows  will  ulti 
mately  and  permanently  reduce  the  number  of  his  sub 
scribers.  They  do  not  believe  that  it  would  be  expedient. 
How  then  can  they  print  truth?  If  we  do  not  say 
pleasant  things,  they  argue,  nobody  will  attend  to  us. 
And  so  they  do  like  some  travelling  auctioneers,  who 
sing  an  obscene  song,  in  order  to  draw  a  crowd  around 
them.  Republican  editors,  obliged  to  get  their  sentences 
ready  for  the  morning  edition,  and  accustomed  to  look 
at  everything  by  the  twilight  of  politics,  express  no 
admiration,  nor  true  sorrow  even,  but  call  these  men 
"  deluded  fanatics,"  —  "  mistaken  men,"  —  "  insane,"  or 
"  crazed."  It  suggests  what  a  sane  set  of  editors  we 
are  blessed  with,  not  "  mistaken  men  " ;  who  know  very 
well  on  which  side  their  bread  is  buttered,  at  least. 

A  man  does  a  brave  and  humane  deed,  and  at  once,  on 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     165 

all  sides,  we  hear  people  and  parties  declaring,  "I did  n't  do 
it,  nor  countenance  him  to  do  it,  in  any  conceivable  way. 
It  can't  be  fairly  inferred  from  my  past  career."  I,  for 
one,  am  not  interested  to  hear  you  define  your  position. 
I  don't  know  that  I  ever  was,  or  ever  shall  be.  I  think 
it  is  mere  egotism,  or  impertinent  at  this  time.  Ye 
needn't  take  so  much  pains  to  wash  your  .skirts  of  him. 
No  intelligent  man  will  ever  be  convinced  that  he  was 
any  creature  of  yours.  He  went  and  came,  as  he  him 
self  informs  us,  "  under  the  auspices  of  John  Brown  and 
nobody  else."  The  Republican  party  does  not  perceive 
how  many  his  failure  will  make  to  vote  more  correctly 
than  they  would  have  them.  They  have  counted  the 
votes  of  Pennsylvania  &  Co.,  but  they  have  not  correctly 
counted  Captain  Brown's  vote.  He  has  taken  the  wind 
out  of  their  sails,  —  the  little  wind  they  had,  —  and  they 
may  as  well  lie  to  and  repair. 

What  though  he  did  not  belong  to  your  clique! 
Though  you  may  not  approve  of  his  method  or  his  prin 
ciples,  recognize  his  magnanimity.  Would  you  not  like 
to  claim  kindredship  with  him  in  that,  though  in  no 
other  thing  he  is  like,  or  likely,  to  you  ?  Do  you  think 
that  you  would  lose  your  reputation  so  ?  What  you  lost 
at  the  spile,  you  would  gain  at  the  bung. 

If  they  do  not  mean  all  this,  then  they  do  not  speak 
the  truth,  and  say  what  they  mean.  They  are  simply 
at  their  old  tricks  still. 

"  It  was  always  conceded  to  him,"  says  one  who  calls 
him  crazy,  "  that  he  was  a  conscientious  man,  very  mod 
est  in  his  demeanor,  apparently  inoffensive,  until  the  sub 
ject  of  Slavery  was  introduced,  when  he  would  exhibit  a 
feeling  of  indignation  unparalleled." 

The  slave-ship  is  on  her  way,  crowded  with  its  dying 


1G6     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

victims ;  new  cargoes  are  being  added  in  mid-ocean ; 
a  small  crew  of  slaveholders,  countenanced  by  a  large 
body  of  passengers,  is  smothering  four  millions  under 
the  hatches,  and  yet  the  politician  asserts  that  the  only 
proper  way  by  which  deliverance  is  to  be  obtained,  is 
by  "  the  quiet  diffusion  of  the  sentiments  of  humanity," 
without  any  "  outbreak."  As  if  the  sentiments  of  hu 
manity  were  ever  found  unaccompanied  by  its  deeds, 
and  you  could  disperse  them,  all  finished  to  order,  the 
pure  article,  as  easily  as  water  with  a  watering-pot,  and 
so  lay  the  dust.  What  is  that  that  I  hear  cast  overboard  ? 
The  bodies  of  the  dead  that  have  found  deliverance. 
That  is  the  way  we  are  "  diffusing "  humanity,  and  its 
sentiments  with  it. 

Prominent  and  influential  editors,  accustomed  to  deal 
with  politicians,  men  of  an  infinitely  lower  grade,  say, 
in  their  ignorance,  that  he  acted  "  on  the  principle  of 
revenge."  They  do  not  know  the  man.  They  must  en 
large  themselves  to  conceive  of  him.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  time  will  come  when  they  will  begin  to  see  him 
as  he  was.  They  have  got  to  conceive  of  a  man  of  faith 
and  of  religious  principle,  and  not  a  politician  or  an  In 
dian  ;  of  a  man  who  did  not  wait  till  he  was  personally 
interfered  with  or  thwarted  in  some  harmless  business 
before  he  gave  his  life  to  the  cause  of  the  oppressed. 

If  Walker  may  be  considered  the  representative  of  the 
South,  I  wish  I  could  say  that  Brown  was  the  represent 
ative  of  the  North.  He  was  a  superior  man.  He  did 
not  value  his  bodily  life  in  comparison  with  ideal  things. 
He  did  not  recognize  unjust  human  laws,  but  resisted 
them  as  he  was  bio*.  For  once  we  are  lifted  out  of  the 
trivialness  and  dust  of  politics  into  the  region  of  truth 
and  manhood.  No  man  in  America  has  ever  stood  up 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     167 

so  persistently  and  effectively  for  the  dignity  of  human 
nature,  knowing  himself  for  a  man,  and  the  equal  of 
any  and  all  governments.  In  that  sense  he  was  the  most 
American  .of  us  all.  He  needed  no  babbling  lawyer, 
making  false  issues,  to  defend  him.  He  was  more  than 
a  match  for  all  the  judges  that  American  voters,  or  office 
holders  of  whatever  grade,  can  create.  He  could  not 
have  been  tried  by  a  jury  of  his  peers,  because  his  peers 
did  not  exist.  When  a  man  stands  up  serenely  against 
the  condemnation  and  vengeance  of  mankind,  rising 
above  them  literally  by  a  whole  body,  —  even  though  he 
were  of  late  the  vilest  murderer,  who  has  settled  that 
matter  with  himself,  —  the  spectacle  is  a  sublime  one,  — 
did  n't  ye  know  it,  ye  Liberators,  ye  Tribunes,  ye  He- 
publicans  ?  —  and  we  become  criminal  in  comparison. 
Do  yourselves  the  honor  to  recognize  him.  He  needs 
none  of  your  respect. 

As  for  the  Democratic  journals,  they  are  not  human 
enough  to  affect  me  at  all.  I  do  not  feel  indignation  at 
anything  they  may  say. 

I  am  aware  that  I  anticipate  a  little,  —  that  he  was  still, 
at  the  last  accounts,  alive  in  the  hands  of  his  foes ; 
but  that  being  the  case,  I  have  all  along  found  myself 
thinking  and  speaking  of  him  as  physically  dead. 

I  do  not  believe  in  erecting  statues  to  those  who  still 
live  in  our  hearts,  whose  bones  have  not  yet  crumbled 
in  the  earth  around  us,  but  I  would  rather  see  the  statue 
of  Captain  Brown  in  the  Massachusetts  State-House 
yard,  than  that  of  any  other  man  whom  I  know.  I  re 
joice  that  I  live  in  this  age,  that  I  am  his  contemporary. 

What  a  contrast,  when  we  turn  to  that  political  party 
which  is  so  anxiously  shuffling  him  and  his  plot  out  of 
its  way,  and  looking  around  for  some  available  slave- 


168     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

holder,  perhaps,  to  be  its  candidate,  at  least  for  one  who 
will  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  all  those  other 
unjust  laws  which  he  took  up  arms  to  annul ! 

Insane  !  A  father  and  six  sons,  and  one  son-in-law, 
and  several  more  men  besides,  —  as  many  at  least  as 
twelve  disciples,  —  all  struck  with  insanity  at  once ; 
while  the  same  tyrant  holds  with  a  firmer  gripe  than 
ever  his  four  millions  of  slaves,  and  a  thousand  sane 
editors,  his  abettors,  are  saving  their  country  and  their 
bacon  !  Just  as  insane  were  his  efforts  in  Kansas.  Ask 
the  tyrant  who  is  his  most  dangerous  foe,  the  sane  man 
or  the  insane  ?  Do  the  thousands  who  know  him  best, 
who  have  rejoiced  at  his  deeds  in  Kansas,  and  have 
afforded  him  material  aid  there,  think  him  insane  ? 
Such  a  use  of  this  word  is  a  mere  trope  with  most 
who  persist  in  using  it,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  many 
of  the  rest  have  already  in  silence  retracted  their  words. 

Read  his  admirable  answers  to  Mason  and  others. 
How  they  are  dwarfed  and  defeated  by  the  contrast! 
On  the  one  side,  half-brutish,  half-timid  questioning; 
on  the  other,  truth,  clear  as  lightning,  crashing  into 
their  obscene  temples.  They  are  made  to  stand  with 
Pilate,  and  Gesler,  and  the  Inquisition.  How  ineffec 
tual  their  speech  and  action !  and  what  a  void  their  si 
lence  !  They  are  but  helpless  tools  in  this  great  work. 
It  was  no  human  power  that  gathered  them  about  this 
preacher. 

What  have  Massachusetts  and  the  North  sent  a  few 
sane  representatives  to  Congress  for,  of  late  years  ?  — 
to  declare  with  effect  what  kind  of  sentiments  ?  All 
their  speeches  put  together  and  boiled  down,  —  and  prob 
ably  they  themselves  will  confess  it,  —  do  not  match  for 
manly  directness  and  force,  and  for  simple  truth,  the  few 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     169 

casual  remarks  of  crazy  John  Brown,  on  the  floor  of  the 
Harper's  Ferry  engine-house,  —  that  man  whom  you  are 
about  to  hang,  to  send  to  the  other  world,  though  not  to 
represent  you  there.  No,  he  was  not  our  representative 
in  any  sense.  He  was  too  fair  a  specimen  of  a  man 
to  represent  the  like  of  us.  Who,  then,  were  his  constit 
uents  ?  If  you  read  his  words  understandingly  you  will 
find  out.  In  his  case  there  is  no  idle  eloquence,  no 
made,  nor  maiden  speech,  no  compliments  to  the  oppres 
sor.  Truth  is  his  inspirer,  and  earnestness  the  polisher  of 
his  sentences.  He  could  afford  to  lose  his  Sharpe's 
rifles,  while  he  retained  his  faculty  of  speech,  —  a  Sharpe's 
rifle  of  infinitely  surer  and  longer  range. 

And  the  New  York  Herald  reports  the  conversation 
verbatim  /  It  does  not  know  of  what  undying  words  it 
is  made  the  vehicle. 

I  have  no  respect  for  the  penetration  of  any  man  who 
can  read  the  report  of  that  conversation,  and  still  call 
the  principal  in  it  insane.  It  has  the  ring  of  a  saner 
sanity  than  an  ordinary  discipline  and  habits  of  life,  than 
an  ordinary  organization,  secure.  Take  any  sentence  of 
it,  — "  Any  questions  that  I  can  honorably  answer,  I 
will ;  not  otherwise.  So  far  as  I  am  myself  concerned,  I 
have  told  everything  truthfully.  I  value  my  word,  sir." 
The  few  who  talk  about  his  vindictive  spirit,  while  they 
really  admire  his  heroism,  have  no  test  by  which  to  de 
tect  a  noble  man,  no  amalgam  to  combine  with  his  pure 
gold.  They  mix  their  own  dross  with  it. 

It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  these  slanders  to  the  testi 
mony  of  his  more  truthful,  but  frightened  jailers  and 
hangmen.  Governor  Wise  speaks  far  more  justly  and 
appreciatingly  of  him  than  any  Northern  editor,  or  poli 
tician,  or  public  personage,  that  I  chance  to  have  heard 

8 


170     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

from.  I  know  that  you  can  afford  to  hear  him  again  on 
this  subject.  He  says  :  "  They  are  themselves  mistaken 
who  take  him  to  be  a  madman Pie  is  cool,  collect 
ed,  and  indomitable,  and  it  is  but  just  to  him  to  say,  that 

he  was  humane  to  his  prisoners And  he  inspired 

me  with  great  trust  in  his  integrity  as  a  man  of  truth. 
He  is  a  fanatic,  vain  and  garrulous,"  (I  leave  that  part 
to  Mr.  Wise,)  "  but  firm,  truthful,  and  intelligent.  His 

men,  too,  who  survive,  are  like  him Colonel 

Washington  says  that  he  was  the  coolest  and  firmest 
man  he  ever  saw  in  defying  clanger  and  death.  With 
one  son  dead  by  his  side,  and  another  shot  through,  he 
felt  the  pulse  of  his  dying  son  with  one  hand,  and  held 
his  rifle  with  the  other,  and  commanded  his  men  with 
the  utmost  composure,  encouraging  them  to  be  firm,  and 
to  sell  their  lives  as  dear  as  they  could.  Of  the  three 
white  prisoners,  Brown,  Stephens,  and  Coppic,  it  was 
hard  to  say  which  was  most  firm." 

Almost  the  first  Northern  men  whom  the  slaveholder 
has  learned  to  respect ! 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Yallandigham,  though  less 
valuable,  is  of  the  same  purport,  that  "  it  is  vain  to  un 
derrate  either  the  man  or  his  conspiracy He  is 

the  farthest  possible  removed  from  the  ordinary  ruffian, 
fanatic,  or  madman." 

"  All  is  quiet  at  Harper's  Ferry,"  say  the  journals. 
What  is  the  character  of  that  calm  which  follows  when 
the  law  and  the  slaveholder  prevail  ?  I  regard  this 
event  as  a  touchstone  designed  to  bring  out,  with  glaring 
distinctness,  the  character  of  this  government.  We 
needed  to  be  thus  assisted  to  see  it  by  the  light  of  his 
tory.  It  needed  to  see  itself.  When  a  government 
puts  forth  its  strength  on  the  side  of  injustice,  as  ours  to 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     171 

maintain  slavery  and  kill  the  liberators  of  the  slave,  it 
reveals  itself  a  merely  brute  force,  or  worse,  a  demoni 
acal  force.  It  is  the  head  of  the  Plug-Uglies.  It  is 
more  manifest  than  ever  that  tyranny  rules.  I  see  this 
government  to  be  effectually  allied  with  France  and 
Austria  in  oppressing  mankind.  There  sits  a  tyrant 
holding  fettered  four  millions  of  slaves  ;  here  comes  their 
heroic  liberator.  This  most  hypocritical  and  diabolical 
government  looks  up  from  its  seat  on  the  gasping  four 
millions,  and  inquires  with  an  assumption  of  innocence : 
"  What  do  you  assault  me  for  ?  Am  I  not  an  honest 
man  ?  Cease  agitation  on  this  subject,  or  I  will  make  a 
slave  of  you,  too,  or  else  hang  you." 

We  talk  about  a  representative  government ;  but  what 
a  monster  of  a  government  is  that  where  the  noblest 
faculties  of  the  mind,  and  the  whole  heart,  are  not  rep 
resented.  A  semi-human  tiger  or  ox,  stalking  over  the 
earth,  with  its  heart  taken  out  and  the  top  of  its  brain 
shot  away.  Heroes  have  fought  well  on  their  stumps 
when  their  legs  were  shot  off,  but  I  never  heard  of  any 
good  done  by  such  a  government  as  that. 

The  only  government  that  I  recognize,  —  and  it 
matters  not  how  few  are  at  the  head  of  it,  or  how  small 
its  army,  —  is  that  power  that  establishes  justice  in  the 
land,  never  that  which  establishes  injustice.  What  shall 
we  think  of  a  government  to  which  all  the  truly  brave 
and  just  men  in  the  land  are  enemies,  standing  between 
it  and  those  whom  it  oppresses  ?  A  government  that 
pretends  to  be  Christian  and  crucifies  a  million  Christs 
every  day  ! 

Treason !  Where  does  such  treason  take  its  rise  ?  I 
cannot  help  thinking  of  you  as  you  deserve,  ye  govern 
ments.  Can  you  dry  up  the  fountains  of  thought  ?  High 


172     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

treason,  when  it  is  resistance  to  tyranny  here  below,  has 
its  origin  in,  and  is  first  committed  by,  the  power  that 
makes  and  forever  recreates  man.  When  you  have 
caught  and  hung  all  these  human  rebels,  you  have 
accomplished  nothing  but  your  own  guilt,  for  you  have 
not  struck  at  the  fountain-head.  You  presume  to  contend 
with  a  foe  against  whom  West  Point  cadets  and  rifled 
cannon  point  not.  Can  all  the  art  of  the  cannon-founder 
tempt  matter  to  turn  against  its  maker  ?  Is  the  form  in 
which  the  founder  thinks  he  casts  it  more  essential  than 
the  constitution  of  it  and  of  himself? 

The  United  States  have  a  coffle  of  four  millions  of 
slaves.  They  are  determined  to  keep  them  in  this 
condition  ;  and  Massachusetts  is  one  of  the  confederated 
overseers  to  prevent  their  escape.  Such  are  not  all  the 
inhabitants  of  Massachusetts,  but  such  are  they  who 
rule  and  are  obeyed  here.  It  was  Massachusetts,  as  well 
as  Virginia,  that  put  down  this  insurrection  at  Harper's 
Ferry.  She  sent  the  marines  there,  and  she  will  have 
to  pay  the  penalty  of  her  sin. 

Suppose  that  there  is  a  society  in  this  State  that  out 
of  its  own  purse  and  magnanimity  saves  all  the  fugitive 
slaves  that  run  to  us,  and  protects  our  colored  fellow-citi 
zens,  and  leaves  the  other  work  to  the  government,  so- 
called.  Is  not  that  government  fast  losing  its  occupation, 
and  becoming  contemptible  to  mankind?  If  private 
men  are  obliged  to  perform  the  offices  of  government,  to 
protect  the  weak  and  dispense  justice,  then  the  govern 
ment  becomes  only  a  hired  man,  or  clerk,  to  perform 
menial  or  indifferent  services.  Of  course,  that  is  but 
the  shadow  of  a  government  whose  existence  necessitates 
a  Vigilant  Committee.  What  should  we  think  of  the 
Oriental  Cadi  even,  behind  whom  worked  in  secret  a 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     173 

vigilant  committee  ?  But  such  is  the  character  of  our 
Northern  States  generally ;  each  has  its  Vigilant  Com 
mittee.  And,  to  a  certain  extent,  these  crazy  govern 
ments  recognize  and  accept  this  relation.  They  say, 
virtually,  "  We  '11  be  glad  to  work  for  you  on  these  terms, 
only  don't  make  a  noise  about  it."  And  thus  the  govern 
ment,  its  salary  being  insured,  withdraws  into  the  back 
shop,  taking  the  Constitution  with  it,  and  bestows  most 
of  its  labor  on  repairing  that.  When  I  hear  it  at  work 
sometimes,  as  I  go  by,  it  reminds  me,  at  best,  of  those 
farmers  who  in  winter  contrive  to  turn  a  penny  by  follow 
ing  the  coopering  business.  And  what  kind  of  spirit  is 
their  barrel  made  to  hold  ?  They  speculate  in  stocks, 
and  bore  holes  in  mountains,  but  they  are  not  competent 
to  lay  out  even  a  decent  highway.  The  only  free  road, 
the  Underground  Railroad,  is  owned  and  managed  by 
the  Vigilant  Committee.  They  have  tunnelled  under 
the  whole  breadth  of  the  land.  Such  a  government  is 
losing  its  power  and  respectability  as  surely  as  water 
runs  out  of  a  leaky  vessel,  and  is  held  by  one  that  can 
contain  it. 

I  hear  many  condemn  these  men  because  they  were 
so  few.  When  were  the  good  and  the  brave  ever  in  a 
majority?  Would  you  have  had  him  wait  till  that  time 
came  ?  —  till  you  and  I  came  over  to  him  ?  The  very 
fact  that  he  had  no  rabble  or  troop  of  hirelings  about 
him  would  alone  distinguish  him  from  ordinary  heroes. 
«His  company  was  small  indeed,  because  few  could  be 
found  worthy  to  pass  muster.  Each  one  who  there  laid 
down  his  life  for  the  poor  and  oppressed  was  a  picked 
man,  culled  out  of  many  thousands,  if  not  millions ;  ap 
parently  a  man  of  principle,  of  rare  courage,  and  devoted 
humanity ;  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  at  any  moment  for 


174     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

the  benefit  of  his  fellow-man.  It  may  be  doubted  if 
there  were  as  many  more  their  equals  in  these  respects  in 
all  the  country  ;  —  I  speak  of  his  followers  only  ;  —  for 
their  leader,  no  doubt,  scoured  the  land  far  and  wide, 
seeking  to  swell  his  troop.  These  alone  were  ready  to 
step  between  the  oppressor  and  the  oppressed.  Surely 
they  were  the  very  best  men  you  could  select  to  be  hung. 
That  was  the  greatest  compliment  which  this  country 
could  pay  them.  They  were  ripe  for  her  gallows.  She 
has  tried  a  long  time,  she  has  hung  a  good  many,  but 
never  found  the  right  one  before. 

"When  I  think  of  him,  and  his  six  sons,  and  his 
son-in-law,  not  to  enumerate  the  others,  enlisted  for  this 
fight,  proceeding  coolly,  reverently,  humanely  to  work, 
for  months  .  if  not  years,  sleeping  and  waking  upon  it, 
summering  and  wintering  the  thought,  without  expecting 
any  reward  but  a  good  conscience,  while  almost  all  Amer 
ica  stood  ranked  on  the  other  side,  —  I  say  again  that  it  af 
fects  me  as  a  sublime  spectacle.  If  he  had  had  any  journal 
advocating  "  his  cause,"  any  organ,  as  the  phrase  is,  mo 
notonously  and  wearisomely  playing  the  same  old  tune, 
and  then  passing  round  the  hat,  it  would  have  been  fatal 
to  his  efficiency.  If  he  had  acted  in  any  way  so  as  to 
be  let  alone  by  the  government,  he  might  have  been  sus 
pected.  It  was  the  fact  that  the  tyrant  must  give  place 
to  him,  or  he  to  the  tyrant,  that  distinguished  him  from 
all  the  reformers  of  the  day  that  I  know. 

It  was  his  peculiar  doctrine  that  a  man  has  a  perfect 
right  to  interfere  by  force  with  the  slaveholder,  in  order 
to  rescue  the  slave.  I  agree  with  him.  They  who  are 
continually  shocked  by  slavery  have  some  right  to  be 
shocked  by  the  violent  death  of  the  slaveholder,  but  no 
others.  Such  will  be  more  shocked  by  his  life  than  by 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     175 

his  death.  I  shall  not  be  forward  to  think  him  mistaken 
in  his  method  who  quickest  succeeds  to  liberate  the  slave. 
I  speak  for  the  slave  when  I  say,  that  I  prefer  the  phi 
lanthropy  of  Captain  Brown  to  that  philanthropy  which 
neither  shoots  me  nor  liberates  me.  At  any  rate,  I  do 
not  think  it  is  quite  sane  for  one  to  spend  his  whole 
life  in  talking  or  writing  about  this  matter,  unless  he  is 
continuously  inspired,  and  I  have  not  done  so.  A  man 
may  have  other  affairs  to  attend  to.  I  do  not  wish  to 
kill  nor  to  be  killed,  but  I  can  foresee  circumstances  in 
which  both  these  things  would  be  by  me  unavoidable. 
We  preserve  the  so-called  peace  of  our  community  by 
deeds  of  petty  violence  every  day.  Look  at  the  police 
man's  billy  and  handcuffs  !  Look  at  the  jail !  Look  at 
the  gallows  !  Look  at  the  chaplain  of  the  regiment ! 
We  are  hoping  only  to  live  safely  on  the  outskirts  of 
this  provisional  army.  So  we  defend  ourselves  and  our 
hen-roosts,  and  maintain  slavery.  I  know  that  the  mass 
of  my  countrymen  think  that  the  only  righteous  use  that 
can  be  made  of  Sharpe's  rifles  and  revolvers  is  to  fight 
duels  with  them,  when  we  are  insulted  by  other  nations, 
or  to  hunt  Indians,  or  shoot  fugitive  slaves  with  them,  or 
the  like.  I  think  that  for  once  the  Sharpe's  rifles  and 
the  revolvers  were  employed  in  a  righteous  cause.  The 
tools  were  in  the  hands  of  one  who  could  use  them. 

The  same  indignation  that  is  said  to  have  cleared  the 
temple  once  will  clear  it  again.  The  question  is  not 
about  the  weapon,  but  the  spirit  in  which  you  use  it. 
No  man  has  appeared  in  America,  as  yet,  who  loved  his 
fellow-man  so  well,  and  treated  him  so  tenderly.  He 
lived  for  him.  He  took  up  his  life  and  he  laid  it  down 
for  him.  What  sort  of  violence  is  that  which  is  en 
couraged,  not  by  soldiers,  but  by  peaceable  citizens,  not 


176          A   PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

so  much  by  laymen  as  by  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  not  so 
much  by  the  fighting  sects  as  by  the  Quakers,  and  not  so 
much  by  Quaker  men  as  by  Quaker  women  ? 

This  event  advertises  me  that  there  is  such  a  fact  as 
death,  —  the  possibility  of  a  man's  dying.  It  seems  as 
if  no  man  had  ever  died  in  America  before  ;  for  in  order 
to  die  you  must  first  have  lived.  I  don't  believe  in  the 
hearses,  and  palls,  and  funerals  that  they  have  had. 
There  was  no  death  in  the  case,  because  there  had  been 
no  life ;  they  merely  rotted  or  sloughed  off,  pretty  much 
as  they  had  rotted  or  sloughed  along.  No  temple's  veil 
was  rent,  only  a  hole  dug  somewhere.  Let  the  dead 
bury  their  dead.  The  best  of  them  fairly  ran  down  like 
a  clock.  Franklin, — "Washington,  —  they  were  let  off 
without  dying;  they  were  merely  missing  one  day. 
I  hear  a  good  many  pretend  that  they  are  going  to  die ; 
or  that  they  have  died,  for  aught  that  I  know.  Non 
sense  !  I  '11  defy  them  to  do  it.  They  have  n't  got  life 
enough  in  them.  They'll  deliquesce  like  fungi,  and 
keep  a  hundred  eulogists  mopping  the  spot  where  they 
left  off.  Only  half  a  dozen  or  so  have  died  since  the 
world  began.  Do  you  think  that  you  are  going  to  die, 
sir  ?  No !  there 's  no  hope  of  you.  You  have  n't  got 
your  lesson  yet.  You  've  got  to  stay  after  school.  We 
make  a  needless  ado  about  capital  punishment,  —  tak 
ing  lives,  when  there  is  no  life  to  take.  Memento  mori  ! 
We  don't  understand  that  sublime  sentence  which  some 
worthy  got  sculptured  on  his  gravestone  once.  We  've 
interpreted  it  in  a  grovelling  and  snivelling  sense; 
we  've  wholly  forgotten  how  to  die. 

But  be  sure  you  do  die  nevertheless.  Do  your  work, 
and  finish  it.  If  you  know  how  to  begin,  you  will  know 
when  to  end. 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     177 

These  men,  in  teaching  us  how  to  die,  have  at  the 
same  time  taught  us  how  to  live.  If  this  man's  acts 
and  words  do  not  create  a  revival,  it  will  be  the  sever 
est  possible  satire  on  the  acts  and  words  that  do.  It 
is  the  best  news  that  America  has  ever  heard.  It  has 
already  quickened  the  feeble  pulse  of  the  North,  and 
infused,  more  and  more  generous  blood  into  her  veins 
and  heart,  than  any  number  of  years  of  what  is  called 
commercial  and  political  prosperity  could.  How  many 
a  man  who  was  lately  contemplating  suicide  has  now 
something  to  live  for ! 

One  writer  says  that  Brown's  peculiar  monomania 
made  him  to  be  "dreaded  by  the  Missourians  as  a  super 
natural  being."  Sure  enough,  a  hero  in  the  midst  of  us 
cowards  is  always  so  dreaded.  He  is  just  that  thing. 
He  shows  himself  superior  to  nature.  He  has  a  spark 
of  divinity  in  him. 

"  Unless  above  himself  he  can 
Erect  himself,  how  poor  a  thing  is  man !  " 

Newspaper  editors  argue  also  that  it  is  a  proof  of  his 
insanity  that  he  thought  he  was  appointed  to  do  this  work 
which  he  did,  —  that  he  did  not  suspect  himself  for  a 
moment!  They  talk  as  if  it  were  impossible  that  a 
man  could  be  "  divinely  appointed  "  in  these  days  to  do 
any  work  whatever ;  as  if  vows  and  religion  were  out 
of  date  as  connected  with  any  man's  daily  work ;  as 
if  the  agent  to  abolish  slavery  could  only  be  somebody 
appointed  by  the  President,  or  by  some  political  party. 
They  talk  as  if  a  man's  death  were  a  failure,  and  his 
continued  life,  be  it  of  whatever  character,  were  a 
success. 

When  I  reflect  to  what  a  cause  this  man  devoted  him 
self,  and  how  religiously,  and  then  reflect  to  what  cause 

8*  L 


178  A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

his  judges  and  all  who  condemn  him  so  angrily  and 
fluently  devote  themselves,  I  see  that  they  are  as  far 
apart  as  the  heavens  and  earth  are  asunder. 

The  amount  of  it  is,  our  "  leading  men  "  are  a  harm 
less  kind  of  folk,  and  they  know  well  enough  that  they 
were  not  divinely  appointed,  but  elected  by  the  votes  of 
their  party. 

Who  is  it  whose  safety  requires  that  Captain  Brown 
be  hung  ?  Is  it  indispensable  to  any  Northern  man  ? 
Is  there  no  resource  but  to  cast  this  man  also  to  the 
Minotaur?  If  you  do  not  wish  it,  say  so  distinctly. 
While  these  things  are  being  done,  beauty  stands  veiled 
and  music  is  a  screeching  lie.  Think  of  him,  —  of  his 
rare  qualities !  —  such  a  man  as  it  takes  ages  to  make, 
and  ages  to  understand  ;  no  mock  hero,  nor  the  repre 
sentative  of  any  party.  A  man  such  as  the  sun  may 
not  rise  upon  again  in  this  benighted  land.  To  whose 
making  went  the  costliest  material,  the  finest  adamant ; 
sent  to  be  the  redeemer  of  those  in  captivity ;  and  the 
only  use  to  which  you  can  put  him  is  to  hang  him  at 
the  end  of  a  rope !  You  who  pretend  to  care  for 
Christ  crucified,  consider  what  you  are  about  to  do  to 
him  who  offered  himself  to  be  the  savior  of  four 
millions  of  men. 

Any  man  knows  when  he  is  justified,  and  all  the  wits 
in  the  world  cannot  enlighten  him  on  that  point.  The 
murderer  always  knows  that  he  is  justly  punished  ;  but 
when  a  government  takes  the  life  of  a  man  without  the 
consent  of  his  conscience,  it  is  an  audacious  government, 
and  is  taking  a  step  towards  its  own  dissolution.  Is  it 
not  possible  that  an  individual  may  be  right  and  a  gov 
ernment  wrong?  Are  laws  to  be  enforced  simply  be 
cause  they  were  made  ?  or  declared  by  any  number  of 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     179 

men  to  be  good,  if  they  are  not  good  ?  Is  there  any 
necessity  for  a  man's  being  a  tool  to  perform  a  deed  of 
which  his  better  nature  disapproves  ?  Is  it  the  inten 
tion  of  law-makers  that  good  men  shall  be  hung  ever  ? 
Are  judges  to  interpret  the  law  according  to  the  letter, 
and  not  the  spirit  ?  What  right  have  you  to  enter  into 
a  compact  with  yourself  that  you  will  do  thus  or  so, 
against  the  light  within  you  ?  Is  it  for  you  to  make  up 
your  mind,  —  to  form  any  resolution  whatever,  —  and 
not  accept  the  convictions  that  are  forced  upon  you,  and 
which  ever  pass  your  understanding  ?  I  do  not  believe 
in  lawyers,  in  that  mode  of  attacking  or  defending  a 
man,  because  you  descend  to  meet  the  judge  on  his 
own  ground,  and,  in  cases  of  the  highest  importance,  it  is 
of  no  consequence  whether  a  man  breaks  a  human  law  or 
not.  Let  lawyers  decide  trivial  cases.  Business  men 
may  arrange  that  among  themselves.  If  they  were  the 
interpreters  of  the  everlasting  laws  which  rightfully  bind 
man,  that  would  be  another  thing.  A  counterfeiting 
law-factory,  standing  half  in  a  slave  land  and  half  in  a 
free  !  What  kind  of  laws  for  free  men  can  you  expect 
from  that  ? 

I  am  here  to  plead  his  cause  with  you.  I  plead  not 
for  his  life,  but  for  his  character,  —  his  immortal  life ; 
and  so  it  becomes  your  cause  wholly,  and  is  not  his  in 
the  least.  Some  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  Christ  was 
crucified ;  this  morning,  perchance,  Captain  Brown  was 
hung.  These  are  the  two  ends  of  a  chain  which  is  not 
without  its  links.  He  is  not  Old  Brown  any  longer  ;  he 
is  an  angel  of  light. 

I  see  now  that  it  was  necessary  that  the  bravest  and 
humanest  man  in  all  the  country  should  be  hung.  Per 
haps  he  saw  it  himself.  I  almost  fear  that  I  may  yet 


180     A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN. 

hear  of  his  deliverance,  doubting  if  a  prolonged  life,  if 
any  life,  can  do  as  much  good  as  his  death. 

"Misguided"!  "Garrulous"!  "Insane"!  "Vindic 
tive  " !  So  ye  write  in  your  easy-chairs,  and  thus  he 
wounded  responds  from  the  floor  of  the  Armory,  clear  as 
a  cloudless  sky,  true  as  the  voice  of  nature  is  :  "  No 
man  sent  me  here ;  it  was  my  own  prompting  and  that 
of  my  Maker.  I  acknowledge  no  master  in  human 
form." 

And  in  what  a  sweet  and  noble  strain  he  proceeds, 
addressing  his  captors,  who  stand  over  him  :  "  I  think, 
my  friends,  you  are  guilty  of  a  great  wrong  against  God 
and  humanity,  and  it  would  be  perfectly  right  for  any 
one  to  interfere  with  you  so  far  as  to  free  those  you  wil 
fully  and  wickedly  hold  in  bondage." 

And,  referring  to  his  movement :  "  It  is,  in  my  opinion, 
the  greatest  service  a  man  can  render  to  God." 

"  I  pity  the  poor  in  bondage  that  have  none  to  help 
them  ;  that  is  why  I  am  here  ;  not  to  gratify  any  personal 
animosity,  revenge,  or  vindictive  spirit.  It  is  my  sym 
pathy  with  the  oppressed  and  the  wronged,  that  are  as 
good  as  you,  and  as  precious  in  the  sight  of  God." 

You  don't  know  your  testament  when  you  see  it. 

"  I  want  you  to  understand  that  I  respect  the  rights  of 
the  poorest  and  weakest  of  colored  people,  oppressed  by 
the  slave  power,  just  as  much  as  I  do  those  of  the  most 
wealthy  and  powerful." 

"  I  wish  to  say,  furthermore,  that  you  had  better,  all 
you  people  at  the  South,  prepare  yourselves  for  a  settle 
ment  of  that  question,  that  must  come  up  for  settlement 
sooner  than  you  are  prepared  for  it.  The  sooner  you 
are  prepared  the  better.  You  may  dispose  of  me  very 
easily.  I  am  nearly  disposed  of  now  ;  but  this  question 


A  PLEA  FOR  CAPTAIN  JOHN  BROWN.     181 

is  still  to  be  settled,- — this  negro  question,  I  mean;  the 
end  of  that  is  not  yet." 

I  foresee  the  time  when  the  painter  will  paint  that 
scene,  no  longer  going  to  Rome  for  a  subject ;  the  poet 
will  sing  it ;  the  historian  record  it ;  and,  with  the  Land 
ing  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
it  will  be  the  ornament  of  some  future  national  gallery, 
when  at  least  the  present  form  of  slavery  shall  be  no 
more  here.  We  shall  then  be  at  liberty  to  weep  for 
Captain  Brown.  Then,  and'  not  till  then,  we  will  take 
our  revenge. 


PARADISE    (TO   BE)   REGAINED.* 

["Democratic  Eeview,"  New  York,  November,  1843.] 

WE  learn  that  Mr.  Etzler  is  a  native  of  Germany, 
and  originally  published  his  book  in  Pennsylvania,  ten 
or  twelve  years  ago  ;  and  now  a  second  English  edition, 
from  the  original  American  one,  is  demanded  by  his 
readers  across  the  water,  owing,  we  suppose,  to  the  re 
cent  spread  of  Fourier's  doctrines.  It  is  one  of  the  signs 
of  the  times.  We  confess  that  we  have  risen  from  read 
ing  this  book  with  enlarged  ideas,  and  grander  concep 
tions  of  our  duties  in  this  world.  It  did  expand  us  a 
little.  It  is  worth  attending  to,  if  only  that  it  entertains 
large  questions.  Consider  what  Mr.  Etzler  proposes : 

"  Fellow-men  !  I  promise  to  show  the  means  of  cre 
ating  a  paradise  within  ten  years,  where  everything  de 
sirable  for  human  life  may  be  had  by  every  man  in 
superabundance,  without  labor,  and  without  pay ;  where 
the  whole  face  of  nature  shall  be  changed  into  the  most 
beautiful  forms,  and  man  may  live  in  the  most  magnificent 
palaces,  in  all  imaginable  refinements  of  luxury,  and  in 
the  most  delightful  gardens  ;  where  he  may  accomplish, 
without  labor,  in  one  year,  more  than  hitherto  could  be 
done  in  thousands  of  years ;  may  level  mountains,  sink 

*  The  Paradise  within  the  Reach  of  all  Men,  without  Labor,  by 
Powers  of  Nature  and  Machinery.  An  Address  to  all  intelligent  Men. 
In  Two  Parts.  By  J.  A.  Etzler.  Part  First.  Second  English  Edi 
tion.  London.  1842.  pp.  55. 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  183 

valleys,  create  lakes,  drain  lakes  and  swamps,  and  in 
tersect  the  land  everywhere  with  beautiful  canals,  and 
roads  for  transporting  heavy  loads  of  many  thousand 
tons,  and  for  travelling  one  thousand  miles  in  twenty- 
four  hours ;  may  cover  the  ocean  with  floating  islands 
movable  in  any  desired  direction  with  immense  power 
and  celerity,  in  perfect  security,  and  with  .all  comforts 
and  luxuries,  bearing  gardens  and  palaces,  with  thou 
sands  of  families,  and  provided  with  rivulets  of  sweet 
water ;  may  explore  the  interior  of  the  globe,  and  travel 
from  pole  to  pole  in  a  fortnight ;  provide  himself  with 
means,  unheard  of  yet,  for  increasing  his  knowledge  of 
the  world,  and  so  his  intelligence ;  lead  a  life  of  con 
tinual  happiness,  of  enjoyments  yet  unknown ;  free 
himself  from  almost  all  the  evils  that  afflict  mankind, 
except  death,  and  even  put  death  far  beyond  the  common 
period  of  human  life,  and  finally  render  it  less  afflicting. 
Mankind  may  thus  live  in  and  enjoy  a  new  world,  far 
superior  to  the  present,  and  raise  themselves  far  higher 
in  the  scale  of  being." 

It  would  seem  from  this  and  various  indications  be 
side,  that  there  is  a  transcendentalism  in  mechanics  as 
well  as  in  ethics.  While  the  whole  field  of  the  one 
reformer  lies  beyond  the  boundaries  of  space,  the  other 
is  pushing  his  schemes  for  the  elevation  of  the  race  to  its 
utmost  limits.  While  one  scours  the  heavens,  the  other 
sweeps  the  eartfi.  One  says  he  will  reform  himself,  and 
then  nature  and  circumstances  will  be  right.  Let  us  not 
obstruct  ourselves,  for  that  is  the  greatest  friction.  It  is 
of  little  importance  though  a  cloud  obstruct  the  view  of 
the  astronomer  compared  with  his  own  blindness.  The 
other  will  reform  nature  and  circumstances,  and  then 
man  will  be  right.  Talk  no  more  vaguely,  says  he,  of 


184  PARADISE   (TO  BE)  REGAINED. 

reforming  the  world,  —  I  will  reform  the  globe  itself. 
What  matters  it  whether  I  remove  this  humor  out  of  my 
flesh,  or  this  pestilent  humor  from  the  fleshy  part  of  the 
globe  ?  Nay,  is  not  the  latter  the  more  generous  course  ? 
At  present  the  globe  goes  with  a  shattered  constitution 
in  its  orbit.  Has  it  not  asthma,  and  ague,  and  fever, 
and  dropsy,  and  flatulence,  and  pleurisy,  and  is  it  not 
afflicted  with  vermin  ?  Has  it  not  its  healthful  laws 
counteracted,  and  its  vital  energy  which  will  yet  redeem 
it  ?  No  doubt  the  simple  powers  of  nature,  properly 
directed  by  man,  would  make  it  healthy  and  a  paradise ; 
as  the  laws  of  man's  own  constitution  but  wait  to  be 
obeyed,  to  restore  him  to  health  and  happiness.  Our 
panaceas  cure  but  few  ails,  our  general  hospitals  are 
private  and  exclusive.  We  must  set  up  another  Hygeia 
than  is  now  worshipped.  Do  not  the  quacks  even  direct 
small  doses  for  children,  larger  for  adults,  and  larger  still 
for  oxen  and  horses  ?  Let  us  remember  that  we  are  to 
prescribe  for  the  globe  itself. 

This  fair  homestead  has  fallen  to  us,  and  how  little 
have  we  done  to  improve  it,  how  little  have  we  cleared 
and  hedged  and  ditched !  We  are  too  inclined  to  go 
hence  to  a  "  better  land,"  without  lifting  a  finger,  as  our 
farmers  are  moving  to  the  Ohio  soil ;  but  would  it  not  be 
more  heroic  and  faithful  to  till  and  redeem  this  New  Eng 
land  soil  of  the  world  ?  The  still  youthful  energies  of 
the  globe  have  only  to  be  directed  in  their  proper  chan 
nel.  Every  gazette  brings  accounts  of  the  untutored 
freaks  of  the  wind,  —  shipwrecks  and  hurricanes  which 
the  mariner  and  planter  accept  as  special  or  general 
providences ;  but  they  touch  our  consciences,  they  remind 
us  of  our  sins.  Another  deluge  would  disgrace  mankind. 
We  confess  we  never  had  much  respect  for  that  an- 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  185 

tediluvian  race.  A  tliroughbred  business  man  cannot  en 
ter  heartily  upon  the  business  of  life  without  first  look 
ing  into  his  accounts.  How  many  things  are  now  at 
loose  ends.  Who  knows  which  way  the  wind  will  blow 
to-morrow  ?  Let  us  not  succumb  to  nature.  We  will 
marshal  the  clouds  and  restrain  tempests ;  we  will  bottle 
up  pestilent  exhalations  ;  we  will  probe  for  earthquakes, 
grub  them  up,  and  give  vent  to  the  dangerous  gas ;  we 
will  disembowel  the  volcano,  and  extract  its  poison,  take 
its  seed  out.  We  will  wash  water,  and  warm  fire,  and 
cool  ice,  and  underprop  the  earth.  We  will  teach  birds 
to  fly,  and  fishes  to  swim,  and  ruminants  to  chew  the 
cud.  It  is  time  we  had  looked  into  these  things. 

And  it  becomes  the  moralist,  too,  to  inquire  what  man 
might  do  to  improve  and  beautify  the  system ;  what  to 
make  the  stars  shine  more  brightly,  the  sun  more  cheery 
and  joyous,  the  moon  more  placid  and  content.  Could 
he  not  heighten  the  tints  of  flowers  and  the  melody  of 
birds  ?  Does  he  perform  his  duty  to  the  inferior  races  ? 
Should  he  not  be  a  god  to  them  ?  What  is  the  part  of 
magnanimity  to  the  whale  and  the  beaver  ?  Should  we 
not  fear  to  exchange  places  with  them  for  a  day,  lest  by 
their  behavior  they  should  shame  us  ?  Might  we  not 
treat  with  magnanimity  the  shark  and  the  tiger,  not 
descend  to  meet  them  on  their  own  level,  with  spears  of 
sharks'  teeth  and  bucklers  of  tiger's  skin?  We  slander 
the  hyena  ;  man  is  the  fiercest  and  cruellest  animal.  Ah  ! 
he  is  of  little  faith ;  even  the  erring  comets  and  meteors 
would  thank  him,  and  return  his  kindness  in  their  kind. 
How  meanly  and  grossly  do  we  deal  with  nature ! 
Could  we  not  have  a  less  gross  labor  ?  What  else  do 
these  fine  inventions  suggest,  —  magnetism,  the  da 
guerreotype,  electricity  ?  Can  we  not  do  more  than  cut 


186  PARADISE    (TO   BE)    REGAINED. 

and  trim  the  forest,  —  can  we  not  assist  in  its  interior 
economy,  in  the  circulation  of  the  sap  ?  Now  we  work 
superficially  and  violently.  We  do  not  suspect  how 
much  might  be  done  to  improve  our  relation  to  animated 
nature  even ;  what  kindness  and  refined  courtesy  there 
might  be. 

There  are  certain  pursuits  which,  if  not  wholly  poetic 
and  true,  do  at  least  suggest  a  nobler  and  finer  relation  to 
nature  than  we  know.  The  keeping  of  bees,  for  instance, 
is  a  very  slight  interference.  It  is  like  directing  the 
sunbeams.  All  nations,  from  the  remotest  antiquity, 
have  thus  fingered  nature.  There  are  Hymettus  and 
Hybla,  and  how  many  bee-renowned  spots  beside  ? 
There  is  nothing  gross  in  the  idea  of  these  little  herds,  — 
their  hum  like  the  faintest  low  of  kine  in  the  meads.  A 
pleasant  reviewer  has  lately  reminded  us  that  in  some 
places  they  are  led  out  to  pasture  where  the  flowers  are 
most  abundant.  "  Columella  tells  us,"  says  he,  "  that 
the  inhabitants  of  Arabia  sent  their  hives  into  Attica  to 
benefit  by  the  later-blowing  flowers."  Annually  are  the 
hives,  in  immense  pyramids,  carried  up  the  Nile  in  boats, 
and  suffered  to  float  slowly  down  the  stream  by  night, 
resting  by  day,  as  the  flowers  put  forth  along  the  banks ; 
and  they  determine  the  richness  of  any  locality,  and  so 
the  profitableness  of  delay,  by  the  sinking  of  the  boat  in 
the  water.  We  are  told,  by  the  same  reviewer,  of  a 
man  in  Germany,  whose  bees  yielded  more  honey  than 
those  of  his  neighbors,  with  no  apparent  advantage  ;  but 
at  length  he  informed  them,  that  he  had  turned  his  hives 
one  degree  more  to  the  east,  and  so  his  bees,  having  two 
hours  the  start  in  the  morning,  got  the  first  sip  of  honey. 
True,  there  is  treachery  and  selfishness  behind  all  this  ; 
but  these  things  suggest  to  the  poetic  mind  what  might 
be  done. 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)    REGAINED.  187 

Many  examples  there  are  of  a  grosser  interference, 
yet  not  without  their  apology.  We  saw  last  summer, 
on  the  side  of  a  mountain,  a  dog  employed  to  churn  for 
a  farmer's  family,  travelling  upon  a  horizontal  wheel, 
and  though  he  had  sore  eyes,  an  alarming  cough,  and 
withal  a  demure  aspect,  yet  their  bread  did  get  buttered 
for  all  that.  Undoubtedly,  in  the  most  brilliant  successes, 
the  first  rank  is  always  sacrificed.  Much  useless  travel 
ling  of  horses,  in  extenso,  has  of  late  years  been  improv 
ed  for  man's  behoof,  only  two  forces  being  taken  advan 
tage  of,  —  the  gravity  of  the  horse,  which  is  the  centrip 
etal,  and  his  centrifugal  inclination  to  go  ahead.  Only 
these  two  elements  in  the  calculation.  And  is  not  the 
creature's  whole  economy  better  economized  thus  ?  Are 
not  all  finite  beings  better  pleased  with  motions  relative 
than  absolute  ?  And  what  is  the  great  globe  itself  but 
such  a  wheel,  —  a  larger  treadmill,  —  so  that  our  horse's 
freest  steps  over  prairies  are  oftentimes  balked  and  ren 
dered  of  no  avail  by  the  earth's  motion  on  its  axis  ?  But 
here  he  is  the  central  agent  and  motive-power ;  and,  for 
variety  of  scenery,  being  provided  with  a  window  in  front, 
do  not  the  ever-varying  activity  and  fluctuating  energy 
of  the  creature  himself  work  the  effect  of  the  most  varied 
scenery  on  a  country  road  ?  It  must  be  confessed  that 
horses  at  present  work  too  exclusively  for  men,  rarely  men 
for  horses ;  and  the  brute  degenerates  in  man's  society. 

It  will  be  seen  that  we  contemplate  a  time  when 
man's  will  shall  be  law  to  the  physical  world,  and  he 
shall  no  longer  be  deterred  by  such  abstractions  as  time 
and  space,  height  and  depth,  weight  and  hardness,  but 
shall  indeed  be  the  lord  of  creation.  "  Well,"  says  the 
faithless  reader,  "  '  life  is  short,  but  art  is  long ' ;  where 


188  PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED. 

is  the  power  that  \vill  effect  all  these  changes  ?  "  This 
it  is  the  very  object  of  Mr.  Etzler's  volume  to  show.  At 
present,  he  would  merely  remind  us  that  there  are  in 
numerable  and  immeasurable  powers  already  existing  in 
nature,  unimproved  on  a  large  scale,  or  for  generous  and 
universal  ends,  amply  sufficient  for  these  purposes.  He 
would  only  indicate  their  existence,  as  a  surveyor  makes 
known  the  existence  of  a  water-power  on  any  stream ; 
but  for  their  application  he  refers  us  to  a  sequel  to  this 
book,  called  the  "  Mechanical  System."  A  few  of  the 
most  obvious  and  familiar  of  these  powers  are,  the  Wind, 
the  Tide,  the  Waves,  the  Sunshine.  Let  us  consider 
their  value. 

First,  there  is  the  power  of  the  Wind,  constantly  ex 
erted  over  the  globe.  It  appears  from  observation  of  a 
sailing-vessel,  and  from  scientific  tables,  that  the  average 
power  of  the  wind  is  equal  to  that  of  one  horse  for  every 
one  hundred  square  feet.  We  do  not  attach  much  value 
to  this  statement  of  the  comparative  power  of  the  wind 
and  horse,  for  no  common  ground  is  mentioned  on  which 
they  can  be  compared.  Undoubtedly,  each  is  incomparably 
excellent  in  its  way,  and  every  general  comparison  made 
for  such  practical  purposes  as  are  contemplated,  which 
gives  a  preference  to  the  one,  must  be  made  with  some 
unfairness  to  the  other.  The  scientific  tables  are,  for  the 
most  part,  true  only  in  a  tabular  sense.  We  suspect 
that  a  loaded  wagon,  with  a  light  sail,  ten  feet  square, 
would  not  have  been  blown  so  far  by  the  end  of  the 
year,  under  equal  circumstances,  as  a  common  racer  or 
dray  horse  would  have  drawn  it.  And  how  many  crazy 
structures  on  our  globe's  surface,  of  the  same  dimensions, 
would  wait  for  dry-rot  if  the  traces  of  one  horse  were 
hitched  to  them,  even  to  their  windward  side  ?  Plainly, 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  189 

this  is  not  the  principle  of  comparison.  But  even  the 
steady  and  constant  force  of  the  horse  may  be  rated  as 
equal  to  his  weight  at  least.  Yet  \ve  should  prefer  to 
let  the  zephyrs  and  gales  bear,  with  all  their  weight, 
upon  our  fences,  than  that  Dobbin,  with  feet  braced, 
should  lean  ominously  against  them  for  a  season. 

Nevertheless,  here  is  an  almost  incalculable  power  at 
our  disposal,  yet  how  trifling  the  use  we  make  of  it.  It 
only  serves  to  turn  a  few  mills,  blow  a  few  vessels  across 
the  ocean,  and  a  few  trivial  ends  besides.  What  a  poor ' 
compliment  do  we  pay  to  our  indefatigable  and  energetic 
servant ! 

Men  having  discovered  the  power  of  falling  water, 
which,  after  all,  is  comparatively  slight,  how  eagerly  do 
they  seek  out  and  improve  these  privileges  ?  Let  a 
difference  of  but  a  few  feet  in  level  be  discovered  on  some 
stream  near  a  populous  town,  some  slight  occasion  for 
gravity  to  act,  and  the  whole  economy  of  the  neighbor 
hood  is  changed  at  once.  Men  do  indeed  speculate  about 
and  with  this  power  as  if  it  were  the  only  privilege.  But 
meanwhile  this  aerial  stream  is  falling  from  far  greater 
heights  with  more  constant  flow,  never  shrunk  by  drought, 
offering  mill-sites  wherever  the  wind  blows  ;  a  Niagara 
in  the  air,  with  no  Canada  side  ;  —  only  the  application 
is  hard. 

There  are  the  powers,  too,  of  the  Tide  and  Waves, 
constantly  ebbing  and  flowing,  lapsing  and  relapsing,  but 
they  serve  man  in  but  few  ways.  They  turn  a  few  tide- 
mills,  and  perform  a  few  other  insignificant  and  accidental 
services  only.  We  all  perceive  the  effect  of  the  tide ; 
how  imperceptibly  it  creeps  up  into  our  harbors  and 
rivers,  and  raises  the  heaviest  navies  as  easily  as  the 
lightest  chip.  Everything  that  floats  must  yield  to  it. 


190  PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED. 

But  man,  slow  to  take  nature's  constant  hint  of  assistance, 
makes  slight  and  irregular  use  of  this  power,  in  careen 
ing  ships  and  getting  them  afloat  when  aground. 

This  power  may  be  applied  in  various  ways.  A  large 
body,  of  the  heaviest  materials  that  will  float,  may  first 
be  raised  by  it,  and  being  attached  to  the  end  of  a  bal 
ance  reaching  from  the  land,  or  from  a  stationary  sup 
port,  fastened  to  the  bottom,  when  the  tide  falls,  the 
whole  weight  will  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  end  of 
the  balance.  Also,  when  the  tide  rises,  it  may  be  made 
to  exert  a  nearly  equal  force  in  the  opposite  direc 
tion.  It  can  be  employed  wherever  a  point  d'appui  can 
be  obtained. 

Verily,  the  land  would  wear  a  busy  aspect  at  the 
spring  and  neap  tide,  and  these  island  ships,  these 
terrce  infirmce,  which  realize  the  fables  of  antiquity, 
affect  our  imagination.  We  have  often  thought  that 
the  fittest  locality  for  a  human  dwelling  was  on  the  edge 
of  the  land,  that  there  the  constant  lesson  and  impression 
of  the  sea  might  sink  deep  into  the  life  and  character 
of  the  landsman,  and  perhaps  impart  a  marine  tint  to 
his  imagination.  It  is  a  noble  word,  that  mariner, — 
one  who  is  conversant  with  the  sea.  There  should  be 
more  of  what  it  signifies  in  each  of  us.  It  is  a  worthy 
country  to  belong  to,  —  we  look  to  see  him  not  disgrace 
it.  Perhaps  we  should  be  equally  mariners  and  ter- 
reners,  and  even  our  Green  Mountains  need  some  of 
that  sea-green  to  be  mixed  with  them. 

The  computation  of  the  power  of  the  Waves  is  less 
satisfactory.  While  only  the  average  power  of  the 
wind,  and  the  average  height  of  the  tide,  were  taken  be 
fore,  now  the  extreme  height  of  the  waves  is  used,  for 
they  are  made  to  rise  ten  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  191 

to  which,  adding  ten  more  for  depression,  we  have 
twenty  feet,  or  the  extreme  height  of  a  wave.  Indeed, 
the  power  of  the  waves,  which  is  produced  by  the  wind 
blowing  obliquely  and  at  disadvantage  upon  the  water, 
is  made  to  be,  not  only  three  thousand  times  greater 
than  that  of  the  tide,  but  one  hundred  times  greater  than 
that  of  the  wind  itself,  meeting  its  object  at  right  an 
gles.  Moreover,  this  power  is  measured  by  the  area  of 
the  vessel,  and  not  by  its  length  mainly,  and  it  seems 
to  be  forgotten  that  the  motion  of  the  waves  is  chiefly 
undulatory,  and  exerts  a  power  only  within  the  limits 
of  a  vibration,  else  the  very  continents,  with  their  ex 
tensive  coasts,  would  soon  be  set  adrift. 

Finally,  there  is  the  power  to  be  derived  from  Sun 
shine,  by  the  principle  on  which  Archimedes  contrived 
his  burning-mirrors,  a  multiplication  of  mirrors  reflect 
ing  the  rays  of  the  sun  upon  the  same  spot,  till  the 
requisite  degree  of  heat  is  obtained.  The  principal  ap 
plication  of  this  power  will  be  to  the  boiling  of  water  and 
production  of  steam.  So  much  for  these  few  and  more 
obvious  powers,  already  used  to  a  trifling  extent.  But 
there  are  innumerable  others  in  nature,  not  described 
nor  discovered.  These,  however,  will  do  for  the  pres 
ent.  This  would  be  to  make  the  sun  and  the  moon 
equally  our  satellites.  For,  as  the  moon  is  the  cause 
of  the  tides,  and  the  sun  the  cause  of  the  wind,  which,  in 
turn,  is  the  cause  of  the  waves,  all  the  work  of  this 
planet  would  be  performed  by  these  far  influences. 

"  We  may  store  up  water  in  some  eminent  pond,  and 
take  out  of  this  store,  at  any  time,  as  much  water  through 
the  outlet  as  we  want  to  employ,  by  which  means  the 
original  power  may  react  for  many  days  after  it  has 
ceased.  .  .  Such  reservoirs  of  moderate  elevation  or 


192  PARADISE    (TO  BE)   REGAINED. 

size  need  not  be  made  artificially,  but  will  be  found 
made  by  nature  very  frequently,  requiring  but  little  aid 
for  their  completion.  They  require  no  regularity  of 
form.  Any  valley,  with  lower  grounds  in  its  vicinity, 
would  answer  the  purpose.  Small  crevices  may  be 
filled  up.  Such  places  may  be  eligible  for  the  begin 
ning  of  enterprises  of  this  kind." 

The  greater  the  height,  of  course,  the  less  water  re 
quired.  But  suppose  a  level  and  dry  country ;  then 
hill  and  valley,  and  "  eminent  pond,"  are  to  be  construct 
ed  by  main  force ;  or,  if  the  springs  are  unusually  low, 
then  dirt  and  stones  may  be  used,  and  the  disadvan 
tage  arising  from  friction  will  be  counterbalanced  by 
their  greater  gravity.  Nor  shall  a  single  rood  of  dry 
laud  be  sunk  in  such  artificial  ponds  as  may  be  wanted, 
but  their  surfaces  "  may  be  covered  with  rafts  decked 
with  fertile  earth,  and  all  kinds  of  vegetables  which  may 
grow  there  as  well  as  anywhere  else." 

And,  finally,  by  the  use  of  thick  envelopes  retaining 
the  heat,  and  other  contrivances,  "  the  power  of  steam 
caused  by  sunshine  may  react  at  will,  and  thus  be  ren 
dered  perpetual,  no  matter  how  often  or  how  long  the 
sunshine  may  be  interrupted." 

Here  is  power  enough,  one  would  think,  to  accom 
plish  somewhat.  These  are  the  Powers  below.  O  ye 
millwrights,  ye  engineers,  ye  operatives  and  speculators 
of  every  class,  never  again  complain  of  a  want  of  power : 
it  is  the  grossest  form  of  infidelity.  The  question  is, 
not  how  we  shall  execute,  but  what.  Let  us  not  use  in 
a  niggardly  manner  what  is  thus  generously  offered. 

Consider  what  revolutions  are  to  be  effected  in  agri 
culture.  First,  in  the  new  country  a  machine  is  to  move 
along,  taking  out  trees  and  stones  to  any  required  depth, 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  193 

and  piling  them  up  in  convenient  heaps ;  then  the  same 
machine,  "  with  a  little  alteration,"  is  to  plane  the  ground 
perfectly,  till  there  shall  be  no  hills  nor  valleys,  making 
the  requisite  canals,  ditches,  and  roads  as  it  goes  along. 
The  same  machine,  "  with  some  other  little  alterations," 
is  then  to  sift  the  ground  thoroughly,  supply  fertile  soil 
from  other  places  if  wanted,  and  plant  it;  and  finally 
the  same  machine,  "  with  a  little  addition,"  is  to  reap 
and  gather  in  the  crop,  thresh  and  grind  it,  or  press  it 
to  oil,  or  prepare  it  any  way  for  final  use.  For  the  de 
scription  of  these  machines  we  are  referred  to  "Etzler's 
Mechanical  System,"  pages  11  to  27.  We  should  be 
pleased  to  see  that  "Mechanical  System."  We  have 
great  faith  in  it.  But  we  cannot  stop  for  applications  now. 
Who  knows  but  by  accumulating  the  power  until  the 
end  of  the  present  century,  using  meanwhile  only  the 
smallest  allowance,  reserving  all  that  blows,  all  that 
shines,  all  that  ebbs  and  flows,  all  that  dashes,  we  may 
have  got  such  a  reserved  accumulated  power  as  to  run 
the  earth  off  its  track  into  a  new  orbit,  some  summer, 
and  so  change  the  tedious  vicissitude  of  the  seasons? 
Or,  perchance,  coming  generations  will  not  abide  the 
dissolution  of  the  globe,  but,  availing  themselves  of 
future  inventions  in  aerial  locomotion,  and  the  naviga 
tion  of  space,  the  entire  race  may  migrate  from  the 
earth,  to  settle  some  vacant  and  more  western  planet,  it 
may  be  still  healthy,  perchance  unearthy,  not  composed 
of  dirt  and  stones,  whose  primary  strata  only  are  strewn, 
and  where  no  weeds  are  sown.  It  took  but  little  art,  a 
simple  application  of  natural  laws,  a  canoe,  a  paddle, 
and  a  sail  of  matting,  to  people  the  isles  of  the  Pacific, 
and  a  little  more  will  people  the  shining  isles  of  space. 
Do  we  not  see  in  the  firmament  the  lights  carried  along 
9  M 


194  PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED. 

the  shore  by  night,  as  Columbus  did  ?  Let  us  not  de 
spair  nor  mutiny. 

"  The  dwellings  also  ought  to  be  very  different  from, 
what  is  known,  if  the  full  benefit  of  our  means  is  to  be  en 
joyed.  They  are  to  be  of  a  structure  for  which  we  have 
no  name  yet.  They  are  to  be  neither  palaces,  nor  tem 
ples,  nor  cities,  but  a  combination  of  all,  superior  to 
whatever  is  known. 

"  Earth  may  be  baked  into  bricks,  or  even  vitrified 
stone  by  heat,  —  we  may  bake  large  masses  of  any  size 
and  form,  into  stone  and  vitrified  substance  of  the  great 
est  durability,  lasting  even  thousand  of  years,  out  of  clayey 
earth,  or  of  stones  ground  to  dust,  by  the  application  of 
burning-mirrors.  This  is  to  be  done  in  the  open  air, 
without  other  preparation  than  gathering  the  substance, 
grinding  and  mixing  it  with  water  and  cement,  moulding 
or  casting  it,  and  bringing  the  focus  of  the  burning- 
mirrors  of  proper  size  upon  the  same." 

The  character  of  the  architecture  is  to  be  quite  dif 
ferent  from  what  it  ever  has  been  hitherto ;  large  solid 
masses  are  to  be  baked  or  cast  in  one  piece,  ready  shaped 
in  any  form  that  may  be  desired.  The  building  may, 
therefore,  consist  of  columns  two  hundred  feet  high  and 
upwards,  of  proportionate  thickness,  and  of  one  entire 
piece  of  vitrified  substance  ;  huge  pieces  are  to  be  mould 
ed  so  as  to  join  and  hook  on  to  each  other  firmly,  by 
proper  joints  and  folds,  and  not  to  yield  in  any  way  with 
out  breaking. 

"Foundries,  of  any  description,  are  to  be  heated  by 
burning-mirrors,  and  will  require  no  labor,  except  the 
making  of  the  first  moulds  and  the  superintendence  for 
gathering  the  metal  and  taking  the  finished  articles  away.'"1 

Alas !  in  the  present  state  of  science,  we  must  take  the 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  195 

finished  articles  away ;  but  think  not  that  man  will  al 
ways  be  the  victim  of  circumstances. 

The  countryman  who  visited  the  city,  and  found  the 
streets  cluttered  with  bricks  and  lumber,  reported  that 
it  was  not  yet  finished ;  and  one  who  considers  the  end 
less  repairs  and  reforming  of  our  houses  might  well 
wonder  when  they  will  be  done.  But  why  may  not  the 
dwellings  of  men  on  this  earth  be  built,  once  for  all,  of 
some  durable  material,  some  Roman  or  Etruscan  ma 
sonry,  which  will  stand,  so  that  time  shall  only  adorn 
and  beautify  them  ?  Why  may  we  not  finish  the  out 
ward  world  for  posterity,  and  leave  them  leisure  to  at 
tend  to  the  inner  ?  Surely,  all  the  gross  necessities  and 
economies  might  be  cared  for  in  a  few  years.  All 
might  be  built  and  baked  and  stored  up,  during  this, 
the  term-time  of  the  world,  against  the  vacant  eternity, 
and  the  globe  go  provisioned  and  furnished,  like  our 
public  vessels,  for  its  voyage  through  space,  as  through 
some  Pacific  Ocean,  while  we  would  "  tie  up  the  rudder 
and  sleep  before  the  wind,"  as  those  who  sail  from  Lima 
to  Manilla. 

But,  to  go  back  a  few  years  in  imagination,  think 
not  that  life  in  these  crystal  palaces  is  to  bear  any  anal 
ogy  to  life  in  our  present  humble  cottages.  Far  from 
it.  Clothed,  once  for  all,  in  some  "  flexible  stuff,"  more 
durable  than  George  Fox's  suit  of  leather,  composed  of 
"  fibres  of  vegetables,"  "  glutinated  "  together  by  some 
"cohesive  substances,"  and  made  into  sheets,  like  pa 
per,  of  any  size  or  form,  man  will  put  far  from  him 
corroding  care  and  the  whole  host  of  ills. 

"The  twenty-five  halls  in  the  inside  of  the  square 
are  to  be  each  two  hundred  feet  square  and  high ;  the 
forty  corridors,  each  one  hundred  feet  long  and  twenty 


196  PARADISE   (TO  BE)   EEGAINED. 

I. 

wide;  the  eighty  galleries,  each  from  1,000   to    1,250 

feet  long ;  about  7,000  private  rooms,  the  whole  sur 
rounded  and  intersected  by  the  grandest  and  most  splen 
did  colonnades  imaginable  ;  floors,  ceilings,  columns,  with 
their  various  beautiful  and  fanciful  intervals,  all  shining, 
and  reflecting  to  infinity  all  objects  and  persons,  with 
splendid  lustre  of  all  beautiful  colors,  and  fanciful  shapes 
and  pictures. 

•  "  All  galleries,  outside  and  within  the  halls,  are  to  be 
provided  with  many  thousand  commodious  and  most  ele 
gant  vehicles,  in  which  persons  may  move  up  and  down 
like  birds,  in  perfect  security,  and  without  exertion. 
....  Any  member  may  procure  himself  all  the  common 
articles  of  his  daily  wants,  by  a  short  turn  of  some  crank, 
without  leaving  his  apartment. 

"  One  or  two  persons  are  sufficient  to  direct  the  kitch 
en  business.  They  have  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  super 
intend  the  cookery,  and  to  watch  the  time  of  the 
victuals  being  done,  and  then  to  remove  them,  with  the 
table  and  vessels,  into  the  dining-hall,  or  to  the  respec 
tive  private  apartments,  by  a  slight  motion  of  the  hand 

at  some  crank Any  very  extraordinary  desire  of  any 

person  may  be  satisfied  by  going  to  the  place  where  the 
thing  is  to  be  had ;  and  anything  that  requires  a  partic 
ular  preparation  in  cooking  or  baking  may  be  done  by 
the  person  who  desires  it" 

This  is  one  of  those  instances  in  which  the  individual 
genius  is  found  to  consent,  as  indeed  it  always  does,  at 
last,  with  the  universal.  This  last  sentence  has  a  cer 
tain  sad  and  sober  truth,  which  reminds  us  of  the  scrip 
ture  of  all  nations.  All  expression  of  truth  does  at 
length  take  this  deep  ethical  form.  Here  is  hint  of  a 
place  the  most  eligible  of  any  in  space,  and  of  a  servi- 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  197 

tor,  in  comparison  with  whom  all  other  helps  dwindle 
into  insignificance.  We  hope  to  hear  more  of  him  anon, 
for  even  a  Crystal  Palace  would  be  deficient  without  his 
invaluable  services. 

And  as  for  the  environs  of  the  establishment :  — 

"  There  will  be  afforded  the  most  enrapturing  views 
to  be  fancied,  out  of  the  private  apartments,  from  the 
galleries,  from  the  roof,  from  its  turrets  and  cupolas,  — 
gardens,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see,  full  of  fruits  and 
flowers,  arranged  in  the  most  beautiful  order,  with  walks, 
colonnades,  aqueducts,  canals,  ponds,  plains,  amphithea 
tres,  terraces,  fountains,  sculptural  works,  pavilions,  gon 
dolas,  places  for  public  amusement,  etc.,  to  delight  the 

eye  and  fancy,  the  taste  and  smell The  walks 

and  roads  are  to  be  paved  with  hard  vitrified  large 
plates,  so  as  to  be  always  clean  from  all  dirt  in  any 
weather  or  season 

"  The  walks  may  be  covered  with  porticos  adorned 
with  magnificent  columns,  statues,  and  sculptural  works ; 
all  of  vitrified  substance,  and  lasting  forever.  At  night 
the  roof,  and  the  inside  and  outside  of  the  whole  square, 
are  illuminated  by  gas-light,  which,  in  the  mazes  of 
many-colored  crystal -like  colonnades  and  vaultings,  is 
reflected  with  a  brilliancy  that  gives  to  the  whole  a 
lustre  of  precious  stones,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see. 

Such  are  the  future  abodes  of  men Such  is  the 

life  reserved  to  true  intelligence,  but  withheld  from  ig 
norance,  prejudice,  and  stupid  adherence  to  custom." 

Thus  is  Paradise  to  be  Regained,  and  that  old  and 
stern  decree  at  length  reversed.  Man  shall  no  more 
earn  his  living  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  All  labor 
shall  be  reduced  to  "  a  short  turn  of  some  crank,"  and 
"taking  the  finished  articles  away."  But  there  is  a 


198  PARADISE   (TO  BE)   EEGAINED. 

crank,  —  O,  how  hard  to  be  turned !     Could  there  not 
be  a  crank  upon  a  crank,  —  an  infinitely  small  crank  ? 

—  we  would  fain  inquire.     No,  —  alas  !  not.     But  there 
is  a  certain  divine  energy  in  every  man,  but  sparingly 
employed  as  yet,  which  may  be  called  the  crank  within, 

—  the  crank  after  all,  —  the  prime  mover  in   all   ma 
chinery,  —  quite  indispensable  to  all  work.     "Would  that 
we  might  get  our  hands  on  its  handle !     In  fact,  no  work 
can  be  shirked.     It  may  be  postponed  indefinitely,  but 
not  infinitely.     Nor  can  any  really  important  work  be 
made  easier  by  co-operation  or   machinery.     Not   one 
particle  of  labor  now  threatening  any  man  can  be  routed 
without  being  performed.     It  cannot  be  hunted  out  of 
the  vicinity  like  jackals  and  hyenas.     It  will  not  run. 
You  may  begin  by  sawing  the  little  sticks,  or  you  may 
saw  the  great  sticks  first,  but  sooner  or  later  you  must 
saw  them  both. 

We  will  not  be  imposed  upon  by  this  vast  application 
of  forces.  We  believe  that  most  things  will  have  to  be 
accomplished  still  by  the  application  called  Industry. 
We  are  rather  pleased  after  all  to  consider  the  small 
private,  but  both  constant  and  accumulated  force,  which 
stands  behind  every  spade  in  the  field.  This  it  is  that 
makes  the  valleys  shine,  and  the  deserts  really  bloom. 
Sometimes,  we  confess,  we  are  so  degenerate  as  to  re 
flect  with  pleasure  on  the  days  when  men  were  yoked 
liked  cattle,  and  drew  a  crooked  stick  for  a  plough.  Af 
ter  all,  the  great  interests  and  methods  were  the  same. 

It  is  a  rather  serious  objection  to  Mr.  Etzler's  schemes, 
that  they  require  time,  men,  and  money,  three  very  su 
perfluous  and  inconvenient  things  for  an  honest  and 
well-disposed  man  to  deal  with.  "  The  whole  world," 
he  tells  us,  "  might  therefore  be  really  changed  into  a 


PARADISE    (TO   BE)    REGAINED.  199 

paradise,  within  less  than  ten  years,  commencing  from 
the  first  year  of  an  association  for  the  purpose  of  con 
structing  and  applying  the  machinery."  We  are  sensi 
ble  of  a  startling  incongruity  when  time  and  money  are 
mentioned  in  this  connection.  The  ten  years  which  are 
proposed  would  be  a  tedious  while  to  wait,  if  every  man 
were  at  his  post  and  did  his  duty,  but  quite  too  short  a 
period,  if  we  are  to  take  time  for  it.  But  this  fault  is 
by  no  means  peculiar  to  Mr.  Etzler's  schemes.  There 
is  far  too  much  hurry  and  bustle,  and  too  little  patience 
and  privacy,  in  all  our  methods,  as  if  something  were  to 
be  accomplished  in  centuries.  The  true  reformer  does 
not  want  time,  nor  money,  nor  co-operation,  nor  advice. 
"What  is  time  but  the  stuff  delay  is  made  of?  And  de 
pend  upon  it,  our  virtue  will  not  live  on  the  interest  of 
our  money.  He  expects  no  income,  but  outgoes;  so 
soon  as  we  begin  to  count  the  cost,  the  cost  begins. 
And  as  for  advice,  the  information  floating  in  the  atmos 
phere  of  society  is  as  evanescent  and  unserviceable  to  him 
as  gossamer  for  clubs  of  Hercules.  There  is  absolutely 
no  common  sense ;  it  is  common  nonsense.  If  we  are 
to  risk  a  cent  or  a  drop  of  our  blood,  who  then  shall  advise 
us  ?  For  ourselves,  we  are  too  young  for  experience. 
Who  is  old  enough?  We  are  older  by  faith  than  by 
experience.  In  the  unbending  of  the  arm  to  do  the 
deed  there  is  experience  worth  all  the  maxims  in  the 
world. 

"  It  will  now  be  plainly  seen  that  the  execution  of 
the  proposals  is  not  proper  for  individuals.  Whether  it 
be  proper  for  government  at  this  time,  before  the  sub 
ject  has  become  popular,  is  a  question  to  be  decided ;  all 
that  is  to  be  done  is  to  step  forth,  after  mature  reflection, 
to  confess  loudly  one's  conviction,  and  to  constitute  so- 


200  PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED. 

cieties.  Man  is  powerful  but  in  union  with  many. 
Nothing  great,  for  the  improvement  of  his  own  condi 
tion,  or  that  of  his  fellow-men,  can  ever  be  effected  by 
individual  enterprise." 

Alas  !  this  is  the  crying  sin  of  the  age,  this  want  of 
faith  in  the  prevalence  of  a  man.  Nothing  can  be  effect 
ed  but  by  one  man.  He  who  wants  help  wants  every 
thing.  True,  this  is  the  condition  of  our  weakness,  but 
it  can  never  be  the  means  of  our  recovery.  We  must 
first  succeed  alone,  that  we  may  enjoy  our  success  to 
gether.  We  trust  that  the  social  movements  which  we 
witness  indicate  an  aspiration  not  to  be  thus  cheaply 
satisfied.  In  this  matter  of  reforming  the  world,  we 
have  little  faith  in  corporations  ;  not  thus  was  it  first 
formed. 

But  our  author  is  wise  enough  to  say,  that  the  raw 
materials  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  purposes  are 
"  iron,  copper,  wood,  earth  chiefly,  and  a  union  of  men 
whose  eyes  and  understanding  are  not  shut  up  by  pre 
conceptions."  Ay,  this  last  may  be  what  we  want 
mainly,  —  a  company  of  "  odd  fellows  "  indeed. 

"  Small  shares  of  twenty  dollars  will  be  sufficient,"  — 
in  all,  from  "  200,000  to  300,000,"  —  "  to  create  the  first 
establishment  for  a  whole  community  of  from  3,000  to 
4,000  individuals,"  —  at  the  end  of  five  years  we  shall 
have  a  principal  of  200  millions  of  dollars,  and  so  para 
dise  will  be  wholly  regained  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  year. 
But,  alas,  the  ten  years  have  already  elapsed,  and  there 
are  no  signs  of  Eden  yet,  for  want  of  the  requisite  funds 
to  begin  the  enterprise  in  a  hopeful  manner.  Yet  it 
seems  a  safe  investment.  Perchance  they  could  be  hired 
at  a  low  rate,  the  property  being  mortgaged  for  security, 
and,  if  necessary,  it  could  be  given  up  in  any  stage  of  the 
enterprise,  without  loss,  with  the  fixtures. 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  201 

But  we  see  two  main  difficulties  in  the  way.  First, 
the  successful  application  of  the  powers  by  machinery, 
(we  have  not  yet  seen  the  "  Mechanical  System,")  and, 
secondly,  which  is  infinitely  harder,  the  application  of 
man  to  the  work  by  faith.  This  it  is,  we  fear,  which  will 
prolong  the  ten  years  to  ten  thousand  at  least.  It  will 
take  a  power  more  than  "  80,000  times  greater  than  all 
the  men  on  earth  could  effect  with  their  nerves,"  to  per 
suade  men  to  use  that  which  is  already  offered  them. 
Even  a  greater  than  this  physical  power  must  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  that  moral  power.  Faith,  indeed,  is  all  the 
reform  that  is  needed  ;  it  is  itself  a  reform.  Doubtless, 
we  are  as  slow  to  conceive  of  Paradise  as  of  Heaven,  of 
a  perfect  natural  as  of  a  perfect  spiritual  world.  We 
see  how  past  ages  have  loitered  and  erred  ;  "  Is  perhaps 
our,  generation  free  from  irrationality  and  error  ?  Have 
we  perhaps  reached  now  the  summit  of  human  wisdom, 
and  need  no  more  to  look  out  for  mental  or  physical  im 
provement  ?  "  Undoubtedly,  we  are  never  so  visionary 
as  to  be  prepared  for  what  the  next  hour  may  bring 

forth. 

MeXXei  TO  delov  &'  ecrrt  TOIOVTOV  cfrvcrei. 

The  Divine  is  about  to  be,  and  such  is  its  nature.  In 
our  wisest  moments  we  are  secreting  a  matter,  which, 
like  the  lime  of  the  shell-fish,  incrusts  us  quite  over,  and 
well  for  us  if,  like  it,  we  cast  our  shells  from  time  to 
time,  though  they  be  pearl  and  of  fairest  tint.  Let  us 
consider  under  what  disadvantages  Science  has  hitherto 
labored  before  we  pronounce  thus  confidently  on  her 
progress. 

Mr.  Etzler  is  not  one  of  the  enlightened  practical 
men,  the  pioneers  of  the  actual,  who  move  with  the  slow, 
deliberate  tread  of  science,  conserving  the  world ;  who 
o* 


202  PAKADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED. 

execute  the  dreams  of  the  last  century,  though  they 
have  no  dreams  of  their  own  ;  yet  he  deals  in  the  very 
raw  but  still  solid  material  of  all  inventions.  He  has 
more  of  the  practical  than  usually  belongs  to  so  bold  a 
schemer,  so  resolute  a  dreamer.  Yet  his  success  is  in 
theory,  and  not  in  practice,  and  he  feeds  our  faith  rather 
than  contents  our  understanding.  His  book  wants  order, 
serenity,  dignity,  everything,  —  but  it  does  not  fail  to 
impart  what  only  man  can  impart  to  man  of  much  im 
portance,  his  own  faith.  It  is  true  his  dreams  are  not 
thrilling  nor  bright  enough,  and  he  leaves  off  to  dream 
where  he  who  dreams  just  before  the  dawn  begins.  His 
castles  in  the  air  fall  to  the  ground,  because  they  are  not 
built  lofty  enough ;  they  should  be  secured  to  heaven's 
roof.  After  all,  the  theories  and  speculations  of  men 
concern  us  more  than  their  puny  accomplishment.  It  is 
with  a  certain  coldness  and  languor  that  we  loiter  about 
the  actual  and  so-called  practical.  How  little  do  the 
most  wonderful  inventions  of  modern  times  detain  us. 
They  insult  nature.  Every  machine,  or  particular  ap 
plication,  seems  a  slight  outrage  against  universal  laws. 
How  many  fine  inventions  are  there  which  do  not  clutter 
the  ground  ?  We  think  that  those  only  succeed  which 
minister  to  our  sensible  and  animal  wants,  which  bake  or 
brew,  wash  or  warm,  or  the  like.  But  are  those  of  no 
account  which  are  patented  by  fancy  and  imagination, 
and  succeed  so  admirably  in  our  dreams  that  they  give 
the  tone  still  to  our  waking  thoughts?  Already  nature 
is  serving  all  those  uses  which  science  slowly  derives  on 
a  much  higher  and  grander  scale  to  him  that  will  be 
served  by  her.  When  the  sunshine  falls  on  the  path  of 
the  poet,  he  enjoys  all  those  pure  benefits  and  pleasures 
which  the  arts  slowly  and  partially  realize  from  age  to 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  203 

age.  The  winds  which  fan  his  cheek  waft  him  the  sum 
of  that  profit  and  happiness  which  their  lagging  inven 
tions  supply. 

The  chief  fault  of  this  book  is,  that  it  aims  to  secure 
the  greatest  degree  of  gross  comfort  and  pleasure  merely. 
It  paints  a  Mahometan's  heaven,  and  stops  short  with 
singular  abruptness  when  we  think  it  is  drawing  near  to 
the  precincts  of  the  Christian's,  —  and  we  trust  we  have 
not  made  here  a  distinction  without  a  difference.  Un 
doubtedly  if  we  were  to  reform  this  outward  life  truly 
and  thoroughly,  we  should  find  no  duty  of  the  inner 
omitted.  It  would  be  employment  for  our  whole  nature ; 
and  what  we  should  do  thereafter  would  be  as  vain  a 
question  as  to  ask  the  bird  what  it  will  do  when  its  nest 
is  built  and  its  brood  reared.  But  a  moral  reform  must 
take  place  first,  and  then  the  necessity  of  the  other  will 
be  superseded,  and  we  shall  sail  and  plough  by  its  force 
alone.  There  is  a  speedier  way  than  the  "  Mechanical 
System  "  can  show  to  fill  up  marshes,  to  drown  the  roar 
of  the  waves,  to  tame  hyenas,  secure  agreeable  environs, 
diversify  the  land,  and  refresh  it  with  "  rivulets  of  sweet 
water,"  and  that  is  by  the  power  of  rectitude  and  true 
behavior.  It  is  only  for  a  little  while,  only  occasionally, 
methinks,  that  we  want  a  garden.  Surely  a  good  man 
need  not  be  at  the  labor  to  level  a  hill  for  the  sake  of  a 
prospect,  or  raise  fruits  and  flowers,  and  construct  float 
ing  islands,  for  the  sake  of  a  paradise.  He  enjoys  better 
prospects  than  lie  behind  any  hill.  Where  an  angel 
travels  it  will  be  paradise  all  the  way,  but  where  Satan 
travels  it  will  be  burning  marl  and  cinders.  What  says 
Veeshnoo  Sarma  ?  "  He  whose  mind  is  at  ease  is  pos 
sessed  of  all  riches.  Is  it  not  the  same  to  one  whose 
foot  is  enclosed  in  a  shoe,  as  if  the  whole  surface  of  the 
earth  were  covered  with  leather  ?  " 


204  PARADISE   (TO  BE)    REGAINED. 

He  who  is  conversant  with  the  supernal  powers  will 
not  worship  these  inferior  deities  of  the  wind,  waves, 
tide,  and  sunshine.  But  we  would  not  disparage  the 
importance  of  such  calculations  as  we  have  described. 
They  are  truths  in  physics,  because  they  are  true  in 
ethics.  The  moral  powers  no  one  would  presume  to  cal 
culate.  Suppose  we  could  compare  the  moral  with  the 
physical,  and  say  how  many  horse-power  the  force  of 
love,  for  instance,  blowing  on  every  square  foot  of  a 
man's  soul,  would  equal.  No  doubt  we  are  well  aware 
of  this  force  ;  figures  would  not  increase  our  respect  for 
it ;  the  sunshine  is  equal  to  but  one  ray  of  its  heat.  The 
light  of  the  sun  is  but  the  shadow  of  love.  "  The  souls 
of  men  loving  and  fearing  God,"  says  Raleigh,  "  receive 
influence  from  that  divine  light  itself,  whereof  the  sun's 
clarity,  and  that  of  the  stars,  is  by  Plato  called  but  a 
shadow.  Lumen  est  umbra  Dei,  Deus  est  Lumen  Lu- 
minis.  Light  is  the  shadow  of  God's  brightness,  who  is 
the  light  of  light,"  and,  we  may  add,  the  heat  of  heat. 
Love  is  the  wind,  the  tide,  the  waves,  the  sunshine.  Its 
power  is  incalculable ;  it  is  many  horse-power.  It  never 
ceases,  it  never  slacks  ;  it  can  move  the  globe  without  a 
resting-place ;  it  can  warm  without  fire  ;  it  can  feed  with 
out  meat ;  it  can  clothe  without  garments  ;  it  can  shelter 
without  roof;  it  can  make  a  paradise  within  which  will 
dispense  with  a  paradise  without.  But  though  the  wisest 
men  in  all  ages  have  labored  to  publish  this  force,  and 
every  human  heart  is,  sooner  or  later,  more  or  less,  made 
to  feel  it,  yet  how  little  is  actually  applied  to  social  ends. 
True,  it  is  the  motive-power  of  all  successful  social  ma 
chinery  ;  but,  as  in  physics,  we  have  made  the  elements 
do  only  a  little  drudgery  for  us,  steam  to  take  the  place 
of  a  few  horses,  wind  of  a  few  oars,  water  of  a  few  cranks 


PARADISE   (TO  BE)   REGAINED.  205 

and  hand-mills ;  as  the  mechanical  forces  have  not  yet 
been  generously  and  largely  applied  to  make  the  phys 
ical  world  answer  to  the  ideal,  so  the  power  of  love  has 
been  but  meanly  and  sparingly  applied,  as  yet.  It  has 
patented  only  such  machines  as  the  almshouse,  the  hos 
pital,  and  the  Bible  Society,  while  its  infinite  wind  is 
still  blowing,  and  blowing  down  these  very  structures 
too,  from  time  to  time.  Still  less  are  we  accumulating 
its  power,  and  preparing  to  act  with  greater  energy  at 
a  future  time.  Shall  we  not  contribute  our  shares  to 
this  enterprise,  then  ? 


HERALD    OF    FREEDOM.* 

[From  "The  Dial,'1  Boston,  April,  1844.] 

WE  had  occasionally,  for  several  years,  met  with  a 
number  of  this  spirited  journal,  edited,  as  abolitionists 
need  not  to  be  informed,  by  Nathaniel  P.  Rogers,  once  a 
counsellor  at  law  in  Plymouth,  still  farther  up  the  Mer- 
rimac,  but  now,  in  his  riper  years,  come  down  the  hills 
thus  far,  to  be  the  Herald  of  Freedom  to  these  parts. 
"We  had  been  refreshed  not  a  little  by  the  cheap  cordial 
of  his  editorials,  flowing  like  his  own  mountain-torrents, 
now  clear  and  sparkling,  now  foaming  and  gritty,  and 
always  spiced  with  the  essence  of  the  fir  and  the  Nor 
way  pine ;  but  never  dark  nor  muddy,  nor  threatening 
with  smothered  murmurs,  like  the  rivers  of  the  plain. 
The  effect  of  one  of  his  effusions  reminds  us  of  what 
the  hydropathists  say  about  the  electricity  in  fresh 
spring-water,  compared  with  that  which  has  stood  over 
night,  to  suit  weak  nerves.  We  do  not  know  of  another 
notable  and  public  instance  of  such  pure,  youthful,  and 
hearty  indignation  at  all  wrong.  The  Church  itself 
must  love  it,  if  it  have  any  heart,  though  he  is  said  to 
have  dealt  rudely  with  its  sanctity.  His  clean  attach 
ment  to  the  right,  however,  sanctions  the  severest  rebuke 
we  have  read. 

*  Herald  of  Freedom.  Published  weekly  by  the  New  Hampshire 
Anti-Slavery  Society,  Concord,  N.  H.,  Vol.  X.  No.  4. 


HERALD   OF  FREEDOM.  207 

Mr.  Rogers  seems  to  us  to  have  occupied  an  honor 
able  and  manly  position  in  these  days,  and  in  this  coun 
try,  making  the  press  a  living  and  breathing  organ  to 
reach  the  hearts  of  men,  and  not  merely  "fine  paper 
and  good  type,"  with  its  civil  pilot  sitting  aft,  and  mag 
nanimously  waiting  for  the  news  to  arrive,  —  the  vehi 
cle  of  the  earliest  news,  but  the  latest  intelligence,  —  re 
cording  the  indubitable  and  last  results,  the  marriages 
and  deaths,  alone.  This  editor  was  wide  awake,  and 
standing  on  the  beak  of  his  ship ;  not  as  a  scientific  ex 
plorer  under  government,  but  a  Yankee  sealer  rather, 
who  makes  those  unexplored  continents  his  harbors  in 
which  to  refit  for  more  adventurous  cruises.  He  was  a 
fund  of  news  and  freshness  in  himself,  —  had  the  gift  of 
speech,  and  the  knack  of  writing  ;  and  if  anything  impor 
tant  took  place  in  the  Granite  State,  we  might  be  sure 
that  we  should  hear  of  it  in  good  season.  No  other  pa 
per  that  we  know  kept  pace  so  well  with  one  forward 
wave  of  the  restless  public  thought  and  sentiment  of 
New  England,  and  asserted  so  faithfully  and  ingenuous 
ly  the  largest  liberty  in  all  things.  There  was  beside 
more  unpledged  poetry  in  his  prose  than  in  the  verses 
of  many  an  accepted  rhymer ;  and  we  were  occasionally 
advertised  by  a  mellow  hunter's  note  from  his  trumpet, 
that,  unlike  most  reformers,  his  feet  were  still  where 
they  should  be,  on  the  turf,  and  that  he  looked  out  from 
a  serener  natural  life  into  the  turbid  arena  of  politics. 
Nor  was  slavery  always  a  sombre  theme  with  him,  but 
invested  with  the  colors  of  his  wit  and  fancy,  and  an 
evil  to  be  abolished  by  other  means  than  sorrow  and 
bitterness  of  complaint.  He  will  fight  this  fight  with 
what  cheer  may  be. 

But  to  speak  of  his  composition.    It  is  a  genuine  Yan- 


208  HERALD   OF  FREEDOM. 

kee  style,  without  fiction,  —  real  guessing  and  calculat 
ing  to  some  purpose,  and  reminds  us  occasionally,  as 
does  all  free,  brave,  and  original  writing,  of  its  great 
master  in  these  days,  Thomas  Carlyle.  It  has  a  life 
above  grammar,  and  a  meaning  which  need  not  be 
parsed  to  be  understood.  But  like  those  same  moun 
tain-torrents,  there  is  rather  too  much  slope  to  his  chan 
nel,  and  the  rainbow  sprays  and  evaporations  go  double- 
quick-time  to  heaven,  while  the  body  of  his  water  falls 
headlong  to  the  plain.  We  would  have  more  pause  and 
deliberation,  occasionally,  if  only  to  bring  his  tide  to  a 
head,  —  more  frequent  expansions  of  the  stream,  —  still, 
bottomless,  mountain  tarns,  perchance  inland  seas,  and 
at  length  the  deep  ocean  itself. 

Some  extracts  will  show  in  what  sense  he  was  a  poet 
as  well  as  a  reformer.  He  thus  raises  the  anti-slavery 
"war-whoop"  in  New  Hampshire,  when  an  important 
convention  is  to  be  held,  sending  the  summons,  — 

"  To  none  but  the  whole-hearted,  fully-committed,  cross- 

the-Rubicon  spirits From  rich  '  old  Cheshire,'  from 

Buckingham,  with  her  horizon  setting  down  away  to  the 

salt  sea from  where  the  sun  sets  behind  Kearsarge,  even 

to  where  he  rises  gloriously  over  Moses  Norris's  own  town  of 
Pittsfield,  —  and  from  Amoskeag  to  Ragged  Mountains,  — . 
Coos  —  Upper  Coos,  home  of  the  everlasting  hills,  —  send  out 
your  bold  advocates  of  human  rights,  wherever  they  lay,  scat 
tered  by  lonely  lake,  or  Indian  stream,  or  '  Grant '  or  '  Loca 
tion,'  from  the  trout-haunted  brooks  of  the  Amoriscoggin, 
and  where  the  adventurous  streamlet  takes  up  its  mountain 
march  for  the  St.  Lawrence. 

"  Scattered  and  insulated  men,  wherever  the  light  of 
philanthropy  and  liberty  has  beamed  in  upon  your  solitary 
spirits,  come  down  to  us  like  your  streams  and  clouds ; 
and  our  own  Grafton,  all  about  among  your  dear  hills,  and 


HERALD  OF  FREEDOM.  200 

your  mountain-flanked  valley?,  —  whether  you  home  along 
the  swift  Ammonoosuck,  the  cold  Pemigewassett,  or  the  ox- 
bowed  Connecticut 

"  We  are  slow,  brethren,  dishonorably  slow,  in  a  cause 
like  ours.  Our  feet  should  be  as  '  hinds'  feet.'  '  Liberty 
lies  bleeding.'  The  leaden-colored  wing  of  slavery  obscures 
the  land  with  its  baleful  shadow.  Let  us  come  together,  and 
inquire  at  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  what  is  to  be  done." 

And  again ;  on  occasion  of  a  New  England  Conven 
tion,  in  the  Second- Ad  vent  Tabernacle,  in  Boston,  he 
desires  to  try  one  more  blast,  as  it  were,  "  on  Fabyan's 
White  Mountain  horn." 

"  Ho,  then,  people  of  the  Bay  State,  —  men,  women,  and 
children;  children,  women,  and  men,  scattered  friends  of 
the  friendless,  wheresoever  ye  inhabit,  —  if  habitations  ye 
have,  as  such  friends  have  not  always,  —  along  the  sea-beat 
border  of  Old  Essex  and  the  Puritan  Landing,  and  up  be 
yond  sight  of  the  sea-cloud,  among  the  inland  hills,  where  the 
sun  rises  and  sets  upon  the  dry  land,  in  that  vale  of  the  Connect 
icut,  too  fair  for  human  content  and  too  fertile  for  virtuous 
industry,  —  where  deepens  the  haughtiest  of  earth's  streams, 
on  its  seaward  way,  proud  with  the  pride  of  old  Massachu 
setts.  Are  there  any  friends  of  the  friendless  negro  haunt 
ing  such  a  valley  as  this  ?  In  God's  name,  I  fear  there  are 
none,  or  few ;  for  the  very  scene  looks  apathy  and  oblivion  to 
the  genius  of  humanity.  I  blow  you  the  summons,  though. 
Come,  if  any  of  you  are  there. 

"  And  gallant  little  Rhode  Island ;  transcendent  abolition 
ists  of  the  tiny  Commonwealth.  I  need  not  call  you.  You 
are  called  the  year  round,  and,  instead  of  sleeping  in  your 
tents,  stand  harnessed,  and  with  trumpets  in  your  hands,  — 
every  one ! 

"  Connecticut !  yonder,  the  home  of  the  Burleighs,  the 
Monroes,  and  the  Hudsons,  and  the  native  land  of  old 
George  Benson !  are  you  ready  ?  '  All  ready  ! ' 

"  Maine  here,  off  east,  looking  from  my  mountain  post  like 

N 


210  HERALD   OF  FREEDOM. 

an  everglade.  Where  is  your  Sam.  Fessenden,  who  stood 
storrn-proof  'gainst  New  Organization  in  '38  ?  Has  he  too 
much  name  as  a  jurist  and  orator,  to  be  found  at  a  New 
England  Convention  in  '43  ?  God  forbid.  Come  one  and 
all  of  you  from  « Down  East'  to  Boston,  on  the  30th,  and  let 
the  sails  of  your  coasters  whiten  all  the  sea-road.  Alas ! 
there  are  scarce  enough  of  you  to  man  a  fishing  boat.  Come 
up  mighty  in  your  fewness." 

Such  timely,  pure,  and  unpremeditated  expressions  of 
a  public  sentiment,  such  publicity  of  genuine  indigna 
tion  and  humanity,  as  abound  everywhere  in  this  jour 
nal,  are  the  most  generous  gifts  which  a  man  can  make. 


THOMAS   CARLYLE   AND   HIS  WORKS.* 

THOMAS  CAKLYLE  is  a  Scotchman,  born  about  fifty 
years  ago,  "  at  Ecclefechan,  Annandale,"  according  to 
one  authority.  "  His  parents  '  good  farmer  people/  his 
father  an  elder  in  the  Secession  church  there,  and  a  man 
of  strong  native  sense,  whose  words  were  said  to  '  nail  a 
subject  to  the  wall.' "  We  also  hear  of  his  "  excellent 
mother,"  still  alive,  and  of  "her  fine  old  covenanting 
accents,  concerting  with  his  transcendental  tones."  He 
seems  to  have  gone  to  school  at  Annan,  on  the  shore  of 
the  Solway  Frith,  and  there,  as  he  himself  writes, 
"heard  of  famed  professors,  of  high  matters  classical, 
mathematical,  a  whole  "Wonderland  of  Knowledge," 
from  Edward  Irving,  then  a  young  man  "  fresh  from 
Edinburgh,  with  college  prizes,  ....  come  to  see  our 
schoolmaster,  who  had  also  been  his."  From  this  place, 
they  say,  you  can  look  over  into  Wordsworth's  country. 
Here  first  he  may  have  become  acquainted  with  Nature, 
with  woods,  such  as  are  there,  and  rivers  and  brooks, 
some  of  whose  names  we  have  heard,  and  the  last  lapses 
of  Atlantic  billows.  He  got  some  of  his  education,  too, 
more  or  less  liberal,  out  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
where,  according  to  the  same  authority,  he  had  to  "  sup 
port  himself,"  partly  by  "private  tuition,  translations 
for  the  booksellers,  &c.,"  and  afterward,  as  we  are  glad 
to  hear,  "taught  an  academy  in  Dysart,  at  the  same 
*  Graham's  Magazine,  Philadelphia,  March,  1847. 


212  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

time  that  Irving  was  teaching  in  Kirkaldy,"  the  usual 
middle  passage  of  a  literary  life.  He  was  destined  for 
the  Church,  but  not  by  the  powers  that  rule  man's  life ; 
made  his  literary  debut  in  Fraser's  Magazine,  long  ago ; 
read  here  and  there  in  English  and  French,  with  more 
or  less  profit,  we  may  suppose,  such  of  us  at  least  as  are 
not  particularly  informed,  and  at  length  found  some 
words  which  spoke  to  his  condition  in  the  German  lan 
guage,  and  set  himself  earnestly  to  unravel  that  mys 
tery,  —  with  what  success  many  readers  know. 

After  his  marriage  he  "  resided  partly  at  Comely 
Bank,  Edinburgh ;  and  for  a  year  or  two  at  Craigen- 
puttock,  a  wild  and  solitary  farm-house  in  the  upper 
part  of  Dumfriesshire,"  at  which  last  place,  amid  barren 
heather  hills,  he  was  visited  by  our  countryman,  Emer 
son.  With  Emerson  he  still  corresponds.  He  was 
early  intimate  with  Edward  Irving,  and  continued  to  be 
his  friend  until  the  latter's  death.  Concerning  this 
"  freest,  brotherliest,  bravest  human  soul,"  and  Carlyle's 
relation  to  him,  those  whom  it  concerns  will  do  well  to 
consult  a  notice  of  his  death  in  Fraser's  Magazine  for 
1835,  reprinted  in  the  Miscellanies.  He  also  correspond 
ed  with  Goethe.  Latterly,  we  hear,  the  poet  Sterling 
was  his  only  intimate  acquaintance  in  England. 

He  has  spent  the  last  quarter  of  his  life  in  London, 
writing  books ;  has  the  fame,  as  all  readers  know,  of 
having  made  England  acquainted  with  Germany,  in  late 
years,  and  done  much  else  that  is  novel  and  remarkable 
in  literature.  He  especially  is  the  literary  man  of  those 
parts.  You  may  imagine  him  living  in  altogether  a 
retired  and  simple  way,  with  small  family,  in  a  quiet 
part  of  London,  called  Chelsea,  a  little  out  of  the  din  of 
commerce,  in  "  Cheyne  Row,"  there,  not  far  from  the 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  213 

"  Chelsea  Hospital."  "  A  little  past  this,  and  an  old  ivy- 
clad  church,  with  its  buried  generations  lying  around  it,'* 
writes  one  traveller,  "  you  come  to  an  antique  street  run 
ning  at  right  angles  with  the  Thames,  and,  a  few  steps 
from  the  river,  you  find  Carlyle's  name  on  the  door." 
"  A  Scotch  lass  ushers  you  into  the  second  story  front 
chamber,  which  is  the  spacious  workshop  of  the  world 
maker."  Here  he  sits  a  long  time  together,  with  many 
books  and  papers  about  him  ;  many  new  books,  we  have 
been  told,  on  the  upper  shelves,  uncut,  with  the  "  author's 
respects  "  in  them ;  in  late  months,  with  many  manu 
scripts  in  an  old  English  hand,  and  innumerable  pamph 
lets,  from  the  public  libraries,  relating  to  the  Cromwellian 
period  ;  now,  perhaps,  looking  out  into  the  street  on  brick 
and  pavement,  for  a  change,  and  now  upon  some  rod  of 
grass  ground  in  the  rear ;  or,  perchance,  he  steps  over  to 
the  British  Museum,  and  makes  that  his  studio  for  the 
time.  This  is  the  fore  part  of  the  day  ;  that  is  the  way 
with  literary  men  commonly ;  and  then  in  the  afternoon, 
we  presume,  he  takes  a  short  run  of  a  mile  or  so  through 
the  suburbs  out  into  the  country ;  we  think  he  would  run 
that  way,  though  so  short  a  trip  might  not  take  him  to 
very  sylvan  or  rustic  places.  In  the  mean  while,  people 
are  calling  to  see  him,  from  various  quarters,  few  very 
worthy  of  being  seen  by  him ;  "  distinguished  travellers 
from  America,"  not  a  few ;  to  all  and  sundry  of  whom  he 
gives  freely  of  his  yet  unwritten  rich  and  flashing  solilo 
quy,  in  exchange  for  whatever  they  may  have  to  offer ; 
speaking  his  English,  as  they  say,  with  a  "  broad  Scotch 
accent,"  talking,  to  their  astonishment  and  to  ours,  very 
much  as  he  writes,  a  sort  of  Carlylese,  his  discourse 
"  coming  to  its  climaxes,  ever  and  anon,  in  long,  deep, 
chest-shaking  bursts  of  laughter." 


214  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

He  goes  to  Scotland  sometimes,  to  visit  his  native 
heath-clad  hills,  having  some  interest  still  in  the  earth 
there ;  such  names  as  Craigenputtock  and  Ecclefechan, 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  stand  for  habitable  places 
there  to  him ;  or  he  rides  to  the  seacoast  of  England  in 
his  vacations,  upon  his  horse  Yankee,  bought  by  the  sale 
of  his  books  here,  as  we  have  been  told. 

How,  after  all,  he  gets  his  living  ;  what  proportion  of 
his  daily  bread  he  earns  by  day-labor  or  job-work  with 
his  pen,  what  he  inherits,  what  steals,  —  questions  whose 
answers  are  so  significant,  and  not  to  be  omitted  in  his 
biography,  —  we,  alas  !  are  unable  to  answer  here.  It 
may  be  worth  the  while  to  state  that  he  is  not  a  Reform 
er  in  our  sense  of  the  term,  —  eats,  drinks,  and  sleeps, 
thinks  and  believes,  professes  and  practises,  not  accord 
ing  to  the  New  England  standard,  nor  to  the  Old 
English  wholly.  Nevertheless,  we  are  told  that  he  is 
a  sort  of  lion  in  certain  quarters  there,  "  an  amicable 
centre  for  men  of  the  most  opposite  opinions,"  and 
"  listened  to  as  an  oracle,"  "  smoking  his  perpetual 
pipe." 

A  rather  tall,  gaunt  figure,  with  intent  face,  dark  hair 
and  complexion,  and  the  air  of  a  student ;  not  altogether 
well  in  body,  from  sitting  too  long  in  his  workhouse,  —  he, 
born  in  the  border  country  and  descended  from  moss 
troopers,  it  may  be.  We  have  seen  several  pictures  of 
him  here ;  one,  a  full-length  portrait,  with  hat  and  overall, 
if  it  did  not  tell  us  much,  told  the  fewest  lies  ;  another, 
we  remember,  was  well  said  to  have  "  too  combed  a 
look  "  ;  one  other  also  we  have  seen  in  which  we  discern 
some  features  of  the  man  we  are  thinking  of;  but  the 
only  ones  worth  remembering,  after  all,  are  those  which 
he  has  unconsciously  drawn  of  himself. 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  215 

When  we  remember  how  these  volumes  came  over  to 
us,  with  their  encouragement  and  provocation  from  month 
to  month,  and  what  commotion  they  created  in  many 
private  breasts,  we  wonder  that  the  country  did  not  ring, 
from  shore  to  shore,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
with  its  greeting ;  and  the  Boones  and  Crockets  of  the 
West  make  haste  to  hail  him,  whose  wide  humanity  em 
braces  them  too.  Of  all  that  the  packets  have  brought 
over  to  us,  has  there  been  any  richer  cargo  than  this  ? 
What  else  has  been  English  news  for  so  long  a  season  ? 
What  else,  of  late  years,  has  been  England  to  us,  —  to 
us  who  read  books,  we  mean  ?  Unless  we  remembered 
it  as  the  scene  where  the  age  of  Wordsworth  was  spend 
ing  itself,  and  a  few  younger  muses  were  trying  their 
wings,  and  from  time  to  time,  as  the  residence  of  Landor, 
Carlyle  alone,  since  the  death  of  Coleridge,  has  kept  the 
promise  of  England.  It  is  the  best  apology  for  all  the 
bustle  and  the  sin  of  commerce,  that  it  has  made  us  ac 
quainted  with  the  thoughts  of  this  man.  Commerce 
would  not  concern  us  much  if  it  were  not  for  such  results 
as  this.  New  England  owes  him  a  debt  which  she  will 
be  slow  to  recognize.  His  earlier  essays  reached  us  at  a 
time  when  Coleridge's  were  the  only  recent  words  which 
had  made  any  notable  impression  so  far,  and  they  found 
a  field  unoccupied  by  him,  before  yet  any  words  of  mo 
ment  had  been  uttered  in  our  midst.  He  had  this  ad 
vantage,  too,  in  a  teacher,  that  he  stood  near  to  his  pupils ; 
and  he  has  no  doubt  afforded  reasonable  encouragement 
and  sympathy  to  many  an  independent  but  solitary 
thinker. 

It  is  remarkable,  but  on  the  whole,  perhaps,  not  to  be 
lamented,  that  the  world  is  so  unkind  to  a  new  book. 
Any  distinguished  traveller  who  comes  to  our  shores  is 


216  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

likely  to  get  more  dinners  and  speeches  of  welcome  than 
he  can  well  dispose  of,  but  the  best  books,  if  noticed  at 
all,  meet  with  coldness  and  suspicion,  or,  what  is  worse, 
gratuitous,  off-hand  criticism.  It  is  plain  that  the  re 
viewers,  both  here  and  abroad,  do  not  know  how  to 
dispose  of  this  man.  They  approach  him  too  easily,  as 
if  he  were  one  of  the  men  of  letters  about  town,  who 
grace  Mr.  Somebody's  administration,  merely  ;  but  he 
already  belongs  to  literature,  and  depends  neither  on  the 
favor  of  reviewers,  nor  the  honesty  of  booksellers,  nor 
the  pleasure  of  readers  for  his  success.  He  has  more  to 
impart  than  to  receive  from  his  generation.  He  is  an 
other  such  a  strong  and  finished  workman  in  his  craft  as 
Samuel  Johnson  was,  and,  like  him,  makes  the  literary 
class  respectable.  Since  few  are  yet  out  of  their  appren 
ticeship,  or,  even  if  they  learn  to  be  able  writers,  are  at 
the  same  time  able  and  valuable  thinkers.  The  aged 
and  critical  eye,  especially,  is  incapacitated  to  appreciate 
the  works  of  this  author.  To  such  their  meaning  is  im 
palpable  and  evanescent,  and  they  seem  to  abound  only 
in  obstinate  mannerisms,  Germanisms,  and  whimsical 
ravings  of  all  kinds,  with  now  and  then  an  unaccountably 
true  and  sensible  remark.  On  the  strength  of  this  last, 
Carlyle  is  admitted  to  have  what  is  called  genius.  We 
hardly  know  an  old  man  to  whom  these  volumes  are  not 
hopelessly  sealed.  The  language,  they  say,  is  foolish 
ness  and  a  stumbling-block  to  them  ;  but  to  many  a  clear 
headed  boy,  they  are  plainest  English,  and  despatched 
with  such  hasty  relish  as  his  bread  and  milk.  The  fa 
thers  wonder  how  it  is  that  the  children  take  to  this  diet 
so  readily,  and  digest  it  with  so  little  difficulty.  They 
shake  their  heads  with  mistrust  at  their  free  and  easy 
delight,  and  remark  that  "  Mr.  Carlyle  is  a  very  learned 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  217 

man " ;  for  they,  too,  not  to  be  out  of  fashion,  have  got 
grammar  and  dictionary,  if  the  truth  were  known,  and 
with  the  best  faith  cudgelled  their  brains  to  get  a  little 
way  into  the  jungle,  and  they  could  not  but  confess,  as 
often  as  they  found  the  clew,  that  it  was  as  intricate  as 
Blackstone  to  follow,  if  you  read  it  honestly.  But 
merely  reading,  even  with,  the  best  intentions,  is  not 
enough :  you  must  almost  have  written  these  books  your 
self.  Only  he  who  has  had  the  good  fortune  to  read 
them  in  the  nick  of  time,  in  the  most  perceptive  and 
recipient  season  of  life,  can  give  any  adequate  account 
of  them. 

Many  have  tasted  of  this  well  with  an  odd  suspicion, 
as  if  it  were  some  fountain  Arethuse  which  had  flowed 
under  the  sea  from  Germany,  as  if  the  materials  of  his 
books  had  lain  in  some  garret  there,  in  danger  of  be 
ing  appropriated  for  waste-paper.  Over  what  German 
ocean,  from  what  Hercynian  forest,  he  has  been  import 
ed,  piecemeal,  into  England,  or  whether  he  has  now  all 
arrived,  we  are  not  informed.  This  article  is  not  in 
voiced  in  Hamburg  nor  in  London.  Perhaps  it  was 
contraband.  However,  we  suspect  that  this  sort  of  goods 
cannot  be  imported  in  this  way.  No  matter  how  skilful 
the  stevedore,  all  things  being  got  into  sailing  trim,  wait 
for  a  Sunday,  and  aft  wind,  and  then  weigh  anchor,  and 
run  up  the  main-sheet,  —  straightway  what  of  transcend 
ent  and  permanent  value  is  there  resists  the  aft  wind, 
and  will  doggedly  stay  behind  that  Sunday,  — it  does  not 
travel  Sundays  ;  while  biscuit  and  pork  make  headway, 
and  sailors  cry  heave-yo  !  It  must  part  company,  if  it 
open  a  seam.  It  is  not  quite  safe  to  send  out  a  venture 
in  this  kind,  unless  yourself  go  supercargo.  Where  a 
man  goes,  there  he  is  ;  but  the  slightest  virtue  is  immov- 
10 


218  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

able,  —  it  is  real  estate,  not  personal ;  who  would  keep  it, 
must  consent  to  be  bought  and  sold  with  it. 

However,  we  need  not  dwell  on  this  charge  of  a  Ger 
man  extraction,  it  being  generally  admitted,  by  this  time, 
that  Carlyle  is  English,  and  an  inhabitant  of  London. 
He  has  the  English  for  his  mother-tongue,  though  with 
a  Scotch  accent,  or  never  so  many  accents,  and  thoughts 
also,  which  are  the  legitimate  growth  of  native  soil,  to 
utter  therewith.  His  style  is  eminently  colloquial,  and 
no  wonder  it  is  strange  to  meet  with  in  a  book.  It  is 
not  literary  or  classical ;  it  has  not  the  music  of  poetry, 
nor  the  pomp  of  philosophy,  but  the  rhythms  and  cadences 
of  conversation  endlessly  repeated.  It  resounds  with 
emphatic,  natural,  lively,  stirring  tones,  muttering,  rat 
tling,  exploding,  like  shells  and  shot,  and  with  like  exe 
cution.  So  far  as  it  is  a  merit  in  composition,  that  the 
written  answer  to  the  spoken  word,  and  the  spoken  word 
to  a  fresh  and  pertinent  thought  in  the  mind,  as  well  as 
to  the  half  thoughts,  the  tumultuary  misgivings  and  ex 
pectancies,  this  author  is,  perhaps,  not  to  be  matched  in 
literature. 

He  is  no  mystic,  either,  more  than  Newton  or  Ark- 
wright  or  Davy,  and  tolerates  none.  Not  one  obscure 
line,  or  half  line,  did  he  ever  write.  His  meaning  lies 
plain  as  the  daylight,  and  he  who  runs  may  read ;  in 
deed,  only  he  who  runs  can  read,  and  keep  up  with  the 
meaning.  It  has  the  distinctness  of  picture  to  his  mind, 
and  he  tells  us  only  what  he  sees  printed  in  largest  Eng 
lish  type  upon  the  face  of  things.  He  utters  substantial 
English  thoughts  in  plainest  English  dialects ;  for  it 
must  be  confessed,  he  speaks  more  than  one  of  these. 
All  the  shires  of  England,  and  all  the  shires  of  Europe, 
are  laid  under  contribution  to  his  genius ;  for  to  be  Eng- 


THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  219 

lish  does  not  mean  to  be  exclusive  and  narrow,  and 
adapt  one's  self  to  the  apprehension  of  his  nearest  neigh 
bor  only.  And  yet  no  writer  is  more  thoroughly  Saxon. 
In  the  translation  of  those  fragments  of  Saxon  poetry, 
we  have  met  with  the  same  rhythm  that  occurs  so  often 
in  his  poem  on  the  French  Revolution.  And  if  you 
would  know  where  many  of  those  obnoxious  Carlyleisms 
and  Germanisms  came  from,  read  the  best  of  Milton's 
prose,  read  those  speeches  of  Cromwell  which  he  has 
brought  to  light,  or  go  and  listen  once  more  to  your 
mother's  tongue.  So  much  for  his  German  extraction. 

Indeed,  for  fluency  and  skill  in  the  use  of  the  Eng 
lish  tongue,  lie  is  a  master  unrivalled.  His  felicity 
and  power  of  expression  surpass  even  his  special  mer 
its  as  historian  and  critic.  Therein  his  experience  has 
not  failed  him,  but  furnished  him  with  such  a  store  of 
winged,  ay  and  legged  words,  as  only  a  London  life, 
perchance,  could  give  account  of.  We  had  not  under 
stood  the  wealth  of  the  language  before.  Nature  is  ran 
sacked,  and  all  the  resorts  and  purlieus  of  humanity  are 
taxed,  to  furnish  the  fittest  symbol  for  his  thought.  He 
does  not  go  to  the  dictionary,  the  word-book,  but  to  the 
word-manufactory  itself,  and  has  made  endless  work 
for  the  lexicographers.  Yes,  he  has  that  same  English 
for  his  mother-tongue  that  you  have,  but  with  him  it  is 
no  dumb,  muttering,  mumbling  faculty,  concealing  the 
thoughts,  but  a  keen,  unwearied,  resistless  weapon.  He 
has  such  command  of  it  as  neither  you  nor  I  have  ;  and 
it  would  be  well  for  any  who  have  a  lost  horse  to  adver 
tise,  or  a  town-meeting  warrant,  or  a  sermon,  or  a  letter 
to  write,  to  study  this  universal  letter-writer,  for  he 
knows  more  than  the  grammar  or  the  dictionary. 

The  style  is  worth  attending  to,  as  one  of  the  most  im- 


220  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

portant  features  of  the  man  which  we  at  this  distance 
can  discern.  It  is  for  once  quite  equal  to  the  matter. 
It  can  carry  all  its  load,  and  never  breaks  down  nor  stag 
gers.  His  books  are  solid  and  workmanlike,  as  all  that 
England  does ;  and  they  are  graceful  and  readable  also. 
They  tell  of  huge  labor  done,  well  done,  and  all  the  rub 
bish  swept  away,  like  the  bright  cutlery  which  glitters 
in  shop  windows,  while  the  coke  and  ashes,  the  turnings, 
filings,  dust,  and  borings  lie  far  away  at  Birmingham, 
unheard  of.  He  is  a  masterly  clerk,  scribe,  reporter, 
writer.  He  can  reduce  to  writing  most  things,  —  ges 
tures,  winks,  nods,  significant  looks,  patois,  brogue,  ac 
cent,  pantomime,  and  how  much  that  had  passed  for  si 
lence  before,  does  he  represent  by  written  words.  The 
countryman  who  puzzled  the  city  lawyer,  requiring  him 
to  write,  among  other  things,  his  call  to  his  horses,  would 
hardly  have  puzzled  him  ;  he  would  have  found  a  word 
for  it,  all  right  and  classical,  that  would  have  started  his 
team  for  him.  Consider  the  ceaseless  tide  of  speech  for 
ever  flowing  in  countless  cellars,  garrets,  parlors ;  that 
of  the  French,  says  Carlyle,  "  only  ebbs  toward  the  short 
hours  of  night,"  and  what  a  drop  in  the  bucket  is  the 
printed  word.  Feeling,  thought,  speech,  writing,  and, 
we  might  add,  poetry,  inspiration,  —  for  so  the  circle  is 
completed  ;  how  they  gradually  dwindle  at  length,  pass 
ing  through  successive*  colanders,  into  your  history  and 
classics,  from  the  roar  of  the  ocean,  the  murmur  of  the 
forest,  to  the  squeak  of  a  mouse  ;  so  much  only  parsed 
and  spelt  out,  and  punctuated,  at  last.  The  few  who 
can  talk  like  a  book,  they  only  get  reported  commonly. 
But  this  writer  reports  a  new  "  Lieferung." 

One  wonders  how  so  mucli,  after  all,  was  expressed  in 
the  old  way,  so  much  here  depends  upon  the  emphasis, 


THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  221 

tone,  pronunciation,  style,  and  spirit  of  the  reading.  No 
writer  uses  so  profusely  all  the  aids  to  intelligibility 
w.hich  the  printer's  art  affords.  You  wonder  how  others 
had  contrived  to  write  so  many  pages  without  emphatic 
or  italicized  words,  they  are  so  expressive,  so  natural,  so 
indispensable  here,  as  if  none  had  ever  used  the  demon 
strative  pronouns  demonstratively  before.  In  another's 
sentences  the  thought,  though  it  may  be  immortal,  is  as 
it  were  embalmed,  and  does  not  strike  you,  but  here  it  is 
so  freshly  living,  even  the  body  of  it  not  having  passed 
through  the  ordeal  of  death,  that  it  stirs  in  the  very  ex 
tremities,  and  the  smallest  particles  and  pronouns  are  all 
alive  with  it.  It  is  not  simple  dictionary  it,  yours  or 
mine,  but  IT.  The  words  did  not  come  at  the  command 
of  grammar,  but  of  a  tyrannous,  inexorable  meaning;  not 
like  standing  soldiers,  by  vote  of  Parliament,  but  any  able- 
bodied  countryman  pressed  into  the  service,  for  "  Sire,  it 
is  not  a  revolt,  it  is  a  revolution." 

We  have  never  heard  him  speak,  but  we  should  say 
that  Carlyle  was  a  rare  talker.  He  has  broken  the  ice, 
and  streams  freely  forth  like  a  spring  torrent.  He  does 
fiot  trace  back  the  stream  of  his  thought,  silently  adven 
turous,  up  to  its  fountain-head,  but  is  borne  away  with 
it,  as  it  rushes  through  his  brain  like  a  torrent  to  over 
whelm  and  fertilize.  He  holds  a  talk  with  you.  His 
audience  is  such  a  tumultuous  mob  of  thirty  thousand,  as 
assembled  at  the  University  of  Paris,  before  printing 
was  invented.  Philosophy,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not 
talk,  but  write,  or,  when  it  comes  personally  before  an 
audience,  lecture  or  read  ;  and  therefore  it  must  be  read 
to-morrow,  or  a  thousand  years  hence.  But  the  talker 
must  naturally  be  attended  to  at  once ;  he  does  not  talk 
on  without  an  audience  ;  the  winds  do  not  long  bear  the 


222  THOMAS   CAELYLE  AXD   HIS   WORKS. 

sound  of  his  voice.  Think  of  Carlyle  reading  his  French 
Revolution  to  any  audience.  One  might  say  it  was 
never  written,  but  spoken ;  and  thereafter  reported  and 
printed,  that  those  not  within  sound  of  his  voice  might 
know  something  about  it.  Some  men  read  to  you  some 
thing  which  they  have  written  in  a  dead  language,  of 
course,  but  it  may  be  in  a  living  letter,  in  a  Syriac,  or 
Roman,  or  Runic  character.  Men  must  speak  English 
who  can  write  Sanscrit ;  they  must  speak  a  modern 
language  who  write,  perchance,  an  ancient  and  universal 
one.  We  do  not  live  in  those  days  when  the  learned 
used  a  learned  language.  There  is  no  writing  of  Latin 
with  Carlyle ;  but  as  Chaucer,  with  all  reverence  to 
Homer,  and  Virgil,  and  Messieurs  the  Normans,  sung 
his  poetry  in  the  homely  Saxon  tongue,  —  and  Locke  has 
at  least  the  merit  of  having  done  philosophy  into  Eng 
lish,  —  so  Carlyle  has  done  a  different  philosophy  still  fur 
ther  into  English,  and  thrown  open  the  doors  of  litera 
ture  and  criticism  to  the  populace. 

Such  a  style,  —  so  diversified  and  variegated  !  It  is 
like  the  face  of  a  country  ;  it  is  like  a  New  England 
landscape,  with  farm-houses  and  villages,  and  cultivated 
spots,  and  belts  of  forests  and  blueberry-swamps  round 
about,  with  the  fragrance  of  shad-blossoms  and  violets 
on  certain  winds.  And  as  for  the  reading  of  it,  it  is  nov 
el  enough  to  the  reader  who  has  used  only  the  diligence, 
and  old  line  m-ail-coach.  It  is  like  travelling,  sometimes 
on  foot,  sometimes  in  a  gig  tandem ;  sometimes  in  a  full 
coach,  over  highways,  mended  and  unmended,  for  which 
you  will  prosecute  the  town  ;  on  level  roads,  through 
French  departments,  by  Simplon  roads  over  the  Alps, 
and  now  and  then  he  hauls  up  for  a  relay,  and  yokes  in 
an  unbroken  colt  of  a  Pegasus  for  a  leader,  driving  off 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  223 

by  cart-paths,  and  across  lots,  by  corduroy  roads  and 
gridiron  bridges ;  and  where  the  bridges  are  gone,  not 
even  a  string-piece  left,  and  the  reader  has  to  set  his 
breast  and  swim.  You  have  got  an  expert  driver  this 
time,  who  has  driven  ten  thousand  miles,  and  was  never 
known  to  upset ;  can  drive  six  in  hand  on  the  edge  of 
a  precipice,  and  touch  the  leaders  anywhere  with  his 
snapper. 

"With  wonderful  art  he  grinds  into  paint  for  his  pic 
ture  all  his  moods  and  experiences,  so  that  all  his  forces 
may  be  brought  to  the  encounter.  Apparently  writing 
without  a  particular  design  or  responsibility,  setting  down 
his  soliloquies  from  time  to  time,  taking  advantage  of  all 
his  humors,  when  at  length  the  hour  comes  to  declare 
himself,  he  puts  down  in  plain  English,  without  quota 
tion  marks,  what  he,  Thomas  Carlyle,  is  ready  to  defend 
in  the  face  of  the  world,  and  fathers  the  rest,  often  quite 
as  defensible,  only  more  modest,  or  plain  spoken,  or  in 
sinuating,  upon  "  Sauerteig,"  or  some  other  gentleman 
long  employed  on  the  subject.  Rolling  his  subject  how 
many  ways  in  his  mind,  he  meets  it  now  face  to  face, 
wrestling  with  it  at  arm's  length,  and  striving  to  get  it 
down,  or  throw  it  over  his  head  ;  and  if  that  will  not 
do,  or  whether  it  will  do  or  not,  tries  the  back-stitch  and 
side-hug  with  it,  and  downs  it  again,  scalps  it,  draws 
and  quarters  it,  hangs  it  in  chains,  and  leaves  it  to  the 
winds  and  dogs.  With  his  brows  knit,  his  mind  made 
up,  his  will  resolved  and  resistless,  he  advances,  crashing 
his  way  through  the  host  of  weak,  half-formed,  dilettante 
opinions,  honest  and  dishonest  ways  of  thinking,  with 
their  standards  raised,  sentimentalities  and  conjectures, 
and  tramples  them  all  into  dust.  See  how  he  prevails  ; 
you  don't  even  hear  the  groans  of  the  wounded  and  dy- 


224  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

ing.  Certainly  it  is  not  so  well  worth  the  while  to  look 
through  any  man's  eyes  at  history,  for  the  time,  as 
through  his  ;  and  his  way  of  looking  at  things  is  fastest 
getting  adopted  by  his  generation. 

It  is  not  in  man  to  determine  what  his  style  shall  be. 
He  might  as  well  determine  what  his  thoughts  shall  be. 
We  would  not  have  had  him  write  always  as  in  the 
chapter  on  Burns,  and  the  Life  of  Schiller,  and  else 
where.  No ;  his  thoughts  were  ever  irregular  and  im 
petuous.  Perhaps  as  he  grows  older  and  writes  more  he 
acquires  a  truer  expression  ;  it  is  in  some  respects  man 
lier,  freer,  struggling  up  to  a  level  with  its  fountain-head. 
We  think  it  is  the  richest  prose  style  we  know  of. 

Who  cares  what  a  man's  style  is,  so  it  is  intelligible,  — 
as  intelligible  as  his  thought.  Literally  and  really,  the 
style  is  no  more  than  the  stylus,  the  pen  he  writes  with  ; 
and  it  is  not  worth  scraping  and  polishing,  and  gilding, 
unless  it  will  write  his  thoughts  the  better  for  it.  It  is 
something  for  use,  and  not  to  look  at.  The  question  for 
us  is,  not  whether  Pope  had  a  fine  style,  wrote  with  a 
peacock's  feather,  but  whether  he  uttered  useful  thoughts. 
Translate  a  book  a  dozen  times  fro.m  one  language  to 
another,  and  what  becomes  of  its  style  ?  Most  books 
would  be  worn  out  and  disappear  in  this  ordeal.  The 
pen  which  wrote  it  is  soon  destroyed,  but  the  poem 
survives.  We  believe  that  Carlyle  has,  after  all, 
more  readers,  and  is  better  known  to-day  for  this  very 
originality  of  style,  and  that  posterity  will  have  reason 
to  thank  him  for  emancipating  the  language,  in  some 
measure,  from  the  fetters  which  a  merely  conservative, 
aimless,  and  pedantic  literary  class  had  imposed  upon  it, 
and  setting  an  example  of  greater  freedom  and  natural 
ness.  No  man's  thoughts  are  new,  but  the  style  of  their 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  225 

expression  is  tiie  never-failing  novelty  which  cheers  and 
refreshes  men.  If  we  were  to  answer  the  question, 
whether  the  mass  of  men,  as  we  know  them,  talk  as  the 
standard  authors  and  reviewers  write,  or  rather  as  this 
man  writes,  we  should  say  that  he  alone  begins  to  write 
their  language  at  all,  and  that  the  former  is,  for  the  most 
part,  the  mere  effigies  of  a  language,  not  the  best  method 
of  concealing  one's  thoughts  even,  but  frequently  a  meth 
od  of  doing  without  thoughts  at  all. 

In  his  graphic  description  of  Richter's  style,  Carlyle 
describes  his  own  pretty  nearly ;  and  no  doubt  he  first 
got  his  own  tongue  loosened  at  that  fountain,  and  was 
inspired  by  it  to  equal  freedom  and  originality.  "  The 
language,"  as  he  says  of  Richter,  "  groans  with  inde 
scribable  metaphors  and  allusions  to  all  things,  human 
and  divine,  flowing  onward,  not  like  a  river,  but  like  an 
inundation  ;  circling  in  complex  eddies,  chafing  and  gur 
gling,  now  this  way,  now  that";  but  in  Carlyle,  "the 
proper  current "  never  "  sinks  out  of  sight  amid  the 
boundless  uproar."  Again :  "  His  very  language  is 
Titanian,  —  deep,  strong,  tumultuous,  shining  with  a 
thousand  hues,  fused  from  a  thousand  elements,  and 
winding  in  labyrinthic  mazes." 

In  short,  if  it  is  desirable  that  a  man  be  eloquent,  that 
he  talk  much,  and  address  himself  to  his  own  age  mainly, 
then  this  is  not  a  bad  style  of  doing  it.  But  if  it  is 
desired  rather  that  he  pioneer  into  unexplored  regions 
of  thought,  and  speak  to  silent  centuries  to  come,  then, 
indeed,  we  could  wish  that  he  had  cultivated  the  style  of 
Goethe  more,  that  of  Richter  less  ;  not  that  Goethe's  is 
the  kind  of  utterance  most  to  be  prized  by  mankind,  but 
it  will  serve  for  a  model  of  the  best  that  can  be  success 
fully  cultivated. 

10*  o 


226  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

But  for  style,  and  fine  writing,  and  Augustan  ages, 
that  is  but  a  poor  style,  and  vulgar  writing,  and  a  degen 
erate  age,  which  allows  us  to  remember  these  things. 
This  man  has  something  to  communicate.  Carlyle's  are 
not,  in  the  common  sense,  works  of  art  in  their  origin 
and  aim  ;  and  yet,  perhaps,  no  living  English  writer 
evinces  an  equal  literary  talent.  They  are  such  works 
of  art  only  as  the  plough  and  corn-mill  and  steam-en 
gine,  —  not  as  pictures  and  statues.  Others  speak  with 
greater  emphasis  to  scholars,  as  such,  but  none  so  ear 
nestly  and  effectually  to  all  who  can  read.  Others  give 
their  advice,  he  gives  his  sympathy  also.  It  is  no  small 
praise  that  he  does  not  take  upon  himself  the  airs,  has 
none  of  the  whims,  none  of  the  pride,  the  nice  vulgarities, 
the  starched,  impoverished  isolation,  and  cold  glitter  of 
the  spoiled  children  of  genius.  He  does  not  need  to 
husband  his  pearl,  but  excels  by  a  greater  humanity  and 
sincerity. 

He  is  singularly  serious  and  untrivial.  We  are  every 
where  impressed  by  the  rugged,  unwearied,  and  rich 
sincerity  of  the  man.  We  are  sure  that  he  never  sacri 
ficed  one  jot  of  his  honest  thought  to  art  or  whim,  but  to 
utter  himself  in  the  most  direct  and  effectual  way,  —  that 
is  the  endeavor.  These  are  merits  which  will  wear 
well.  When  time  has  worn  deeper  into  the  substance 
of  these  books,  this  grain  will  appear.  No  such  sermons 
have  come  to  us  here  out  of  England,  in  late  years,  as 
those  of  this  preacher,  —  sermons  to  kings,  and  sermons  to 
peasants,  and  sermons  to  all  intermediate  classes.  It  is 
in  vain  that  John  Bull,  or  any  of  his  cousins,  turns  a 
deaf  ear,  and  pretends  not  to  hear  them :  nature  will  not 
soon  be  weary  of  repeating  them.  There  are  words  less 
obviously  true,  more  for  the  ages  to  hear,  perhaps,  but 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  227 

none  so  impossible  for  this  age  not  to  hear.  What  a 
cutting  cimeter  was  that  "  Past  and  Present,"  going 
through  heaps  of  silken  stuffs,  and  glibly  through  the 
necks  of  men,  too,  without  their  knowing  it,  leaving  no 
trace.  He  has  the  earnestness  of  a  prophet.  In  an  age 
of  pedantry  and  dilettantism,  he  has  no  grain  of  these  in 
his  composition.  There  is  nowhere  else,  surely,  in  re 
cent  readable  English,  or  other  books,  such  direct  and 
effectual  teaching,  reproving,  encouraging,  stimulating, 
earnestly,  vehemently,  almost  like  Mahomet,  like  Luther ; 
not  looking  behind  him  to  see  how  his  Opera  Omnia 
will  look,  but  forward  to  other  work  to  be  done.  His 
writings  are  a  gospel  to  the  young  of  this  generation  ; 
they  will  hear  his  manly,  brotherly  speech  with  respon 
sive  joy,  and  press  forward  to  older  or  newer  gospels. 

We  should  omit  a  main  attraction  in  these  books,  if 
we  said  nothing  of  their  humor.  Of  this  indispensable 
pledge  of  sanity,  without  some  leaven,  of  which  the 
abstruse  thinker  may  justly  be  suspected  of  mysticism, 
fanaticism,  or  insanity,  there  is  a  superabundance  in 
Carlyle.  Especially  the- transcendental  philosophy  needs 
the  leaven  of  humor  to  render  it  light  and  digestible.  In 
his  later  and  longer  works  it  is  an  unfailing  accompani 
ment,  reverberating  through  pages  and  chapters,  long 
sustained  without  effort.  The  very  punctuation,  the  ital 
ics,  the  quotation-marks,  the  blank  spaces  and  dashes, 
and  the  capitals,  each  and  all  are  pressed  into  its  ser 
vice. 

Carlyle's  humor  is  vigorous  and  Titanic,  and  has 
more  sense  hi  it  than  the  sober  philosophy  of  many  an 
other.  It  is  not  to  be  disposed  of  by  laughter  and 
smiles  merely  ;  it  gets  to  be  too  serious  for  that :  only 


228  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

they  may  laugh  who  are  not  hit  by  it.  For  those  who 
love  a  merry  jest,  this  is  a  strange  kind  of  fun,  —  rather 
too  practical  joking,  if  they  understand  it.  The  pleasant 
humor  which  the  public  loves  is  but  the  innocent  pranks 
of  the  ball-room,  harmless  flow  of  animal  spirits,  the  light 
plushy  pressure  of  dandy  pumps,  in  comparison.  But 
when  an  elephant  takes  to  treading  on  your  corns,  why 
then  you  are  lucky  if  you  sit  high,  or  wear  cowhide. 
His  humor  is  always  subordinate  to  a  serious  purpose, 
though  often  the  real  charm  for  the  reader  is  not  so  much 
in  the  essential  progress  and  final  upshot  of  the  chapter, 
as  in  this  indirect  side-light  illustration  of  every  hue.  He 
sketches  first,  with  strong,  practical  English  pencil,  the 
essential  features  in  outline,  black  on  white,  more  faith 
fully  than  Dryasdust  would  have  done,  telling  us  wisely 
whom  and  what  to  mark,  to  save  time,  and  then  with 
brush  of  camel's  hair,  or  sometimes  with  more  expe 
ditious  swab,  he  lays  on  the  bright  and  fast  colors  of  his 
humor  everywhere.  One  piece  of  solid  work,  be  it 
known,  we  have  determined  to  do,  about  which  let  there 
be  no  jesting,  but  all  things  else  under  the  heavens,  to 
the  right  and  left  of  that,  are  for  the  time  fair  game.  To 
us  this  humor  is  not  wearisome,  as  almost  every  other  is. 
Rabelais,  for  instance,  is  intolerable ;  one  chapter  is  bet 
ter  than  a  volume,  —  it  may  be  sport  to  him,  but  it  is 
death  to  us.  A  mere  humorist,  indeed,  is  a  most  un 
happy  man ;  and  his  readers  are  most  unhappy  also. 

Humor  is  not  so  distinct  a  quality  as,  for  the  purposes 
of  criticism,  it  is  commonly  regarded,  but  allied  to  every, 
even  the  divinest  faculty.  The  familiar  and  cheerful 
conversation  about  every  hearthside,  if  it  be  analyzed, 
will  be  found  to  be  sweetened  by  this  principle.  There 
is  not  only  a  never-failing,  pleasant,  and  earnest  humor 


THOMAS  CAKLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  229 

kept  up  there,  embracing  the  domestic  affairs,  the  dinner, 
and  the  scolding,  but  there  is  also  a  constant  run  upon 
the  neighbors,  and  upon  Church  and  State,  and  to  cherish 
and  maintain  this,  in  a  great  measure,  the  fire  is  kept 
burning,  and  the  dinner  provided.  There  will  be  neigh 
bors,  parties  to  a  very  genuine,  even  romantic  friendship, 
whose  whole  audible  salutation  and  intercourse,  abstain 
ing  from  the  usual  cordial  expressions,  grasping  of  hands, 
or  affectionate  farewells,  consists  in  the  mutual  play  and 
interchange  of  a  genial  and  healthy  humor,  which  excepts 
nothing,  not  even  themselves,  in  its  lawless  range.  The 
child  plays  continually,  if  you  will  let  it,  and  all  its  life  is 
a  sort  of  practical  humor  of  a  very  pure  kind,  often  of  so 
fine  and  ethereal  a  nature,  that  its  parents,  its  uncles  and 
cousins,  can  in  no  wise  participate  in  it,  but  must  stand 
aloof  in  silent  admiration,  and  reverence  even.  The 
more  quiet  the  more  profound  it  is.  Even  Nature  is  ob 
served  to  have  her  playful  moods  or  aspects,  of  which 
man  seems  sometimes  to  be  the  sport. 

But,  after  all,  we  could  sometimes  dispense  with  the 
humor,  though  unquestionably  incorporated  in  the  blood, 
if  it  were  replaced  by  this  author's  gravity.  We  should 
not  apply  to  himself,  without  qualification,  his  remarks 
on  the  humor  of  Richter.  With  more  repose  in  his  in 
most  being,  his  humor  would  become  more  thoroughly 
genial  and  placid.  Humor  is  apt  to  imply  but  a  half 
satisfaction  at  best.  In  his  pleasantest  and  most  genial 
hour,  man  smiles  but  as  the  globe  smiles,  and  the  works 
of  nature.  The  fruits  dry  ripe,  and  much  as  we  relish 
some  of  them  in  their  green  and  pulpy  state,  we  lay  up 
for  our  winter  store,  not  out  of  these,  but  the  rustling 
autumnal  harvests.  Though  we  never  weary  of  this 
vivacious  wit,  while  we  are  perusing  its  work,  yet  when 


230  THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

we  remember  it  from  afar,  we  sometimes  feel  balked  and 
disappointed,  missing  the  security,  the  simplicity,  and 
frankness,  even  the  occasional  magnanimity  of  acknowl 
edged  dulness  and  bungling.  This  never-failing  success 
and  brilliant  talent  become  a  reproach. 

Besides,  humor  does  not  wear  well.  It  is  commonly 
enough  said,  that  a  joke  will  not  bear  repeating.  The 
deepest  humor  will  not  keep.  Humors  do  not  circulate 
but  stagnate,  or  circulate  partially.  In  the  oldest  litera 
ture,  in  the  Hebrew,  the  Hindoo,  the  Persian,  the  Chi 
nese,  it  is  rarely  humor,  even  the  most  divine,  which  still 
survives,  but  the  most  sober  and  private,  painful  or  joyous 
thoughts,  maxims  of  duty,  to  which  the  life  of  all  men 
may  be  referred.  After  time  has  sifted  the  literature  of 
a  people,  there  is  left  only  their  SCRIPTURE,  for  that  is 
WRITING,  par  excellence.  This  is  as  true  of  the  poets,  as 
of  the  philosophers  and  moralists  by  profession ;  for 
what  subsides  in  any  of  these  is  the  moral  only,  to  re 
appear  as  dry  land  at  some  remote  epoch. 

We  confess  that  Carlyle's  humor  is  rich,  deep,  and 
variegated,  in  direct  communication  with  the  backbone 
and  risible  muscles  of  the  globe,  —  and  there  is  nothing 
like  it;  but  much  as  we  relish  this  jovial,  this  rapid  and 
delugeous  way  of  conveying  one's  views  and  impressions, 
when  we  would  not  converse  but  meditate,  we  pray  for 
a  man's  diamond  edition  of  his  thought,  without  the  col 
ored  illuminations  in  the  margin,  —  the  fishes  and  drag 
ons,  and  unicorns,  the  red  or  the  blue  ink,  but  its  initial 
letter  in  distinct  skeleton  type,  and  the  whole  so  clipped 
and  condensed  down  to  the  very  essence  of  it,  that  time 
will  have  little  to  do.  We  know  not  but  we  shall  im 
migrate  soon,  and  would  fain  take  with  us  all  the  treas 
ures  of  the  East ;  and  all  kinds  of  dry,  portable  soups,  in. 


THOMAS  CAJJLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  231 

small  tin  canisters,  which  contain  whole  herds  of  Eng 
lish  beeves  boiled  down,  will  be  acceptable. 

The  difference  between  this  flashing,  fitful  writing  and 
pure  philosophy  is  the  difference  between  flame  and 
light.  The  flame,  indeed,  yields  light ;  but  when  we  are 
so  near  as  to  observe  the  flame,  we  are  apt  to  be  incom 
moded  by  the  heat  and  smoke.  But  the  sun,  that  old 
Platonist,  is  set  so  far  off  in  the  heavens,  that  only  a 
genial  summer-heat  and  ineffable  daylight  can  reach  us. 
But  many  a  time,  we  confess,  in  wintry  weather,  we 
have  been  glad  to  forsake  the  sunlight,  and  warm  us  by 
these  Promethean  flames.  Carlyle  must  undoubtedly 
plead  guilty  to  the  charge  of  mannerism.  He  not  only 
has  his  vein,  but  his  peculiar  manner  of  working  it.  He 
has  a  style  which  can  be  imitated,  and  sometimes  is  an 
imitator  of  himself. 

Certainly,  no  critic  has  anywhere  said  what  is  more  to 
the  purpose,  than  this  which  Carlyle's  own  writings  fur 
nish,  which  we  quote,  as  well  for  its  intrinsic  merit  as  for 
its  pertinence  here.  "  It  is  true,"  says  he,  thinking  of 
Richter,  "  the  beaten  paths  of  literature  lead  the  safeliest 
to  the  goal ;  and  the  talent  pleases  us  most  which  submits 
to  shine  with  new  gracefulness  through  old  forms.  Nor 
is  the  noblest  and  most  peculiar  mind  too  noble  or  pecu 
liar  for  working  by  prescribed  laws ;  Sophocles,  Shake 
speare,  Cervantes,  and  in  Richter's  own  age,  Goethe, 
how  little  did  they  innovate  on  the  given  forms  of  com 
position,  how  much  in  the  spirit  they  breathed  into  them ! 
All  this  is  true  ;  and  Richter  must  lose  of  our  esteem 
in  proportion."  And  again,  in  the  chapter  on  Goethe, 
"  We  read  Goethe  for  years  before  we  come  to  see  where 
in  the  distinguishing  peculiarity  of  his  understanding,  of 
his  disposition,  even  of  his  way  of  writing,  consists  !  It 


232  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

seems  quite  a  simple  style,  [that  of  his  ?]  remarkable 
chiefly  for  its  calmness,  its  perspicuity,  in  short,  its 
commonness  ;  and  yet  it  is  the  most  uncommon  of  all 
styles."  And  this,  too,  translated  for  us  by  the  same  pen 
from  Schiller,  which  we  will  apply  not  merely  to  the  out 
ward  form  of  his  works,  but  to  their  inner  form  and 
substance.  He  is  speaking  of  the  artist.  "  Let  some 
beneficent  divinity  snatch  him,  when  a  suckling,  from  the 
breast  of  his  mother,  and  nurse  him  with  the  milk  of  a 
better  time,  that  he  may  ripen  to  his  full  stature  beneath 
a  distant  Grecian  sky.  And  having  grown  to  manhood, 
let  him  return,  a  foreign  shape,  into  his  century  ;  not, 
however,  to  delight  it  by  his  presence,  but,  dreadful,  like 
the  son  of  Agamemnon,  to  purify  it.  The  matter  of  his 
works  he  will  take  from  the  present,  but  their  form  lie 
will  derive  from  a  nobler  time  ;  nay,  from  beyond  all 
time,  from  the  absolute  unchanging  unity  of  his  own  na 
ture." 

But  enough  of  this.  Our  complaint  is  already  out  of 
all  proportion  to  our  discontent. 

Carlyle's  works,  it  is  true,  have  not  the  stereotyped 
success  which  we  call  classic.  They  are  a  rich  but  inex 
pensive  entertainment,  at  which  we  are  not  concerned 
lest  the  host  has  strained  or  impoverished  himself  to  feed 
his  guests.  It  is  not  the  most  lasting  word,  nor  the 
loftiest  wisdom,  but  rather  the  word  which  comes  last. 
For  his  genius  it  was  reserved  to  give  expression  to  the 
thoughts  which  were  throbbing  in  a  million  breasts.  He 
has  plucked  the  ripest  fruit  in  the  public  garden  ;  but 
this  fruit  already  least  concerned  the  tree  that  bore  it, 
which  was  rather  perfecting  the  bud  at  the  foot  of  the 
leaf-stalk.  His  works  are  not  to  be  studied,  but  read 
with  a  swift  satisfaction.  Their  flavor  and  gust  is  like 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  233 

what  poets  tell  of  the  froth  of  wine,  which  can  only  be 
tasted  once  and  hastily.  On  a  review  we  can  never  find 
the  pages  we  had  read.  Yet  they  are  in  some  degree 
true  natural  products  in  this  respect.  All  things  are 
but  once,  and  never  repeated.  These  works  were  de 
signed  for  such  complete  success  that  they  serve  but  for 
a  single  occasion. 

But  he  is  wilfully  and  pertinaciously  unjust,  even 
scurrilous,  impolite,  ungentlemanly  ;  calls  us  "Imbeciles," 
"  Dilettants,"  "  Philistines,"  implying  sometimes  what 
would  not  sound  well  expressed.  If  he  would  adopt  the 
newspaper  style,  and  take  back  these  hard  names  — 
But  where  is  the  reader  who  does  not  derive  some  ben 
efit  from  these  epithets,  applying  them  to  himself? 

He  is,  in  fact,  the  best  tempered,  and  not  the  least  im 
partial  of  reviewers.  He  goes  out  of  his  way  to  do  jus 
tice  to  profligates  and  quacks.  There  is  somewhat  even 
Christian,  in  the  rarest  and  most  peculiar  sense,  in  his 
universal  brotherliness,  his  simple,  child-like  endurance, 
and  earnest,  honest  endeavor,  with  sympathy  for  the 
like.  Carlyle,  to  adopt  his  own  classification,  is  himself 
the  hero  as  literary  man.  There  is  no  more  notable 
workingman  in  England,  in  Manchester  or  Birmingham, 
or  the  mines  round  about.  We  know  not  how  many 
hours  a  day  he  toils,  nor  for  what  wages,  exactly :  we  only 
know  the  results  for  us. 

Notwithstanding  the  very  genuine,  admirable,  and 
loyal  tributes  to  Burns,  Schiller,  Goethe,  and  others, 
Carlyle  is  not  a  critic  of  poetry.  In  the  book  of  heroes, 
Shakespeare,  the  hero  as  poet,  conies  off  rather  slimly. 
His  sympathy,  as  we  said,  is  with  the  men  of  endeavor ; 
not  using  the  life  got,  but  still  bravely  getting  their  life. 
"In  fact,"  as  he  says  of  Cromwell,  "everywhere  we 


234  THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

have  to  notice  the  decisive  practical  eye  of  this  man; 
how  he  drives  toward  the  practical  and  practicable  ;  has 
a  genuine  insight  into  what  is  fact."  You  must  have 
very  stout  legs  to  get  noticed  at  all  by  him.  He  is  thor 
oughly  English  in  his  love  of  practical  men,  and  dislike 
for  cant,  and  ardent  enthusiastic  heads  that  are  not  sup 
ported  by  any  legs.  He  would  kindly  knock  them  down 
that  they  may  regain  some  vigor  by  touching  their  moth 
er  earth.  We  have  often  wondered  how  he  ever  found 
out  Burns,  and  must  still  refer  a  good  share  of  his  de 
light  in  him  to  neighborhood  and  early  association.  The 
Lycidas  and  Comus,  appearing  in  Blackwood's  Magazine, 
would  probably  go  unread  by  him,  nor  lead  him  to  expect 
a  Paradise  Lost.  The  condhion-of-England  question  is 
a  practical  one.  The  condition  of  England  demands  a 
hero,  not  a  poet.  Other  things  demand  a  poet ;  the  poet 
answers  other  demands.  Carlyle  in  London,  with  this 
question  pressing  on  him  so  urgently,  sees  no  occasion 
for  minstrels  and  rhapsodists  there.  Kings  may  have 
their  bards  when  there  are  any  kings.  Homer  would 
certainly  go  a-begging  there.  He  lives  in  Chelsea,  not 
on  the  plains  of  Hindostan,  nor  on  the  prairies  of  the 
"West,  where  settlers  are  scarce,  and  a  man  must  at  least 
go  whistling  to  himself. 

What  he  says  of  poetry  is  rapidly  uttered,  and  sug 
gestive  of  a  thought,  rather  than  the  deliberate  develop 
ment  of  any.  He  answers  your  question,  What  is  po 
etry  ?  by  writing  a  special  poem,  as  that  Norse  one,  for 
instance,  in  the  Book  of  Heroes,  altogether  wild  and 
original;  —  answers  your  question,  What  is  light?  by 
kindling  a  blaze  which  dazzles  you,  and  pales  sun  and 
moon,  and  not  as  a  peasant  might,  by  opening  a  shutter. 

Carlyle  is  not  a  seer,  but  a  brave  looker-on  and  review- 


THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  235 

er  ;  not  the  most  free  and  catholic  observer  of  men  and 
events,  for  they  are  likely  to  find  him  preoccupied,  but 
unexpectedly  free  and  catholic  when  they  fall  within  the 
focus  of  his  lens.  He  does  not  live  in  the  present  hour, 
and  read  men  and  books  as  they  occur  for  his  theme,  but 
having  chosen  this,  he  directs  his  studies  to  this  end. 
If  we  look  again  at  his  page,  we  are  apt  to  retract 
somewhat  that  we  have  said.  Often  a  genuine  poetic 
feeling  dawns  through  it,  like  the  texture  of  the  earth 
seen  through  the  dead  grass  and  leaves  in  the  spring. 
The  History  of  the  French  Revolution  is  a  poem,  at 
length  translated  into  prose,  —  an  Iliad,  indeed,  as  he  him 
self  has  it,  —  "  The  destructive  wrath  of  Sansculotism  : 
this  is  what  we  speak,  having  unhappily  no  voice  for 
singing." 

One  improvement  we  could  suggest  in  this  last,  as  in 
deed  in  most  epics,  —  that  he  should  let  in  the  sun  oftener 
upon  his  picture.  It  does  not  often  enough  appear,  but 
it  is  all  revolution,  the  old  way  of  human  life  turned 
simply  bottom  upward,  so  that  when  at  length  we  are 
inadvertently  reminded  of  the  "  Brest  Shipping,"  a  St. 
Domingo  colony,  and  that  anybody  thinks  of  owning 
plantations,  and  simply  turning  up  the  soil  there,  and 
that  now  at  length,  after  some  years  of  this  revolution, 
there  is  a  falling  off  in  the  importation  of  sugar,  we  feel 
a  queer  surprise.  Had  they  not  sweetened  their  water 
with  revolution  then  ?  It  would  be  well  if  there  were 
several  chapters  headed  "  Work  for  the  Month,"  — 
Revolution-work  inclusive,  of  course,  —  "  Altitude  of  the 
Sun,"  "  State  of  the  Crops  and  Markets,"  "Meteorological 
Observations,"  "  Attractive  Industry,"  "  Day  Labor," 
&c.,  just  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  French  peasantry 
did  something  beside  go  without  breeches,  burn  chateaus, 


236  THOMAS   CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

get  ready  knotted  cords,  and  embrace  and  throttle  one 
another  by  turns.  These  things  are  sometimes  hinted 
at,  but  they  deserve  a  notice  more  in  proportion  to  their 
importance.  We  want  not  only  a  background  to  the 
picture,  but  a  ground  under  the  feet  also.  We  remark, 
too,  occasionally,  an  unphilosophical  habit,  common 
enough  elsewhere,  in  Alison's  History  of  Modern  Europe, 
for  instance,  of  saying,  undoubtedly  with  effect,  that  if  a 
straw  had  not  fallen  this  way  or  that,  why  then  —  but, 
of  course,  it  is  as  easy  in  philosophy  to  make  kingdoms 
rise  and  fall  as  straws. 

The  poet  is  blithe  and  cheery  ever,  and  as  well  as 
nature.  Carlyle  has  not  the  simple  Homeric  health  of 
Wordsworth,  nor  the  deliberate  philosophic  turn  of  Cole 
ridge,  nor  the  scholastic  taste  of  Landor,  but,  though 
sick  and  under  restraint,  the  constitutional  vigor  of  one 
of  his  old  Norse  heroes,  struggling  in  a  lurid  light,  with 
Jotuns  still,  striving  to  throw  the  old  woman,  and  "  she 
was  Time,"  —  striving  to  lift  the  big  cat,  and  that  was 
"  the  Great  World-Serpent,  which,  tail  in  mouth,  girds 
and  keeps  up  the  whole  created  world."  The  smith, 
though  so  brawny  and  tough,  I  should  not  call  the  health 
iest  man.  There  is  too  much  shop-work,  too  great  ex 
tremes  of  heat  and  cold,  and  incessant  ten-pound-ten  and 
thrashing  of  the  anvil,  in  his  life.  But  the  haymaker's 
is  a  true  sunny  perspiration,  produced  by  the  extreme  of 
summer  heat  only,  and  conversant  with  the  blast  of  the 
zephyr,  not  of  the  forge-bellows.  We  know  very  well 
the  nature  of  this  man's  sadness,  but  we  do  not  know  the 
nature  of  his  gladness. 

The  poet  will  maintain  serenity  in  spite  of  all  disap 
pointments.  He  is  expected  to  preserve  an  unconcerned 
and  healthy  outlook  over  the  world,  while  he  lives.  Philo- 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  237 

sophia  practica  est  eruditionis  meta,  —  Philosophy  prac 
tised  is  the  goal  of  learning  ;  and  for  that  other,  Oratoris 
est  celare  artem,  we  might  read,  Herois  est  celarepugnam, 
—  the  hero  will  conceal  his  struggles.  Poetry  is  the  only 
life  got,  the  only  work  done,  the  only  pure  product  and 
free  labor  of  man,  performed  only  when  he  has  put  all 
the  world  under  his  feet,  and  conquered  the  last  of  his 
foes. 

Carlyle  speaks  of  Nature  with  a  certain  unconscious 
pathos  for  the  most  part.  She  is  to  him  a  receded  but 
ever  memorable  splendor,  casting  still  a  reflected  light 
over  all  his  scenery.  As  we  read  his  books  here  in 
New  England,  where  there  are  potatoes  enough,  and 
every  man  can  get  his  living  peacefully  and  sportively 
as  the  birds  and  bees,  and  need  think  no  more  of  that,  it 
seems  to  us  as  if  by  the  world  he  often  meant  London,  at 
the  head  of  the  tide  upon  the  Thames,  the  sorest  place 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  the  very  citadel  of  conservatism. 

In  his  writings,  we  should  say  that  he,  as  conspicuously 
as  any,  though  with  little  enough  expressed  or  even  con 
scious  sympathy,  represents  the  Reformer  class,  and  all 
the  better  for  not  being  the  acknowledged  leader  of  any. 
In  him  the  universal  plaint  is  most  settled,  unappeasable, 
and  serious.  Until  a  thousand  named  and  nameless 
grievances  are  righted,  there  will  be  no  repose  for  him 
in  the  lap  of  nature,  or  the  seclusion  of  science  and  litera 
ture.  By  foreseeing  it,  he  hastens  the  crisis  in  the  affairs 
of  England,  and  is  as  good  as  many  years  added  to  her 
history. 

To  do  himself  justice,  and  set  some  of  his  readers  right, 
he  should  give  us  some  transcendent  hero  at  length,  to 
rule  his  demigods  and  Titans ;  develop,  perhaps,  his  re 
served  and  dumb  reverence  for  Christ,  not  speaking  to  a 


238  THOMAS   CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

London  or  Church  of  England  audience  merely.  Let 
not  "  sacred  silence  meditate  that  sacred  matter  "  forever, 
but  let  us  have  sacred  speech  and  sacred  scripture  there 
on. 

Every  man  will  include  in  his  list  of  worthies  those 
whom  he  himself  best  represents.  Carlyle,  and  our 
countryman  Emerson,  whose  place  and  influence  must 
erelong  obtain  a  more  distinct  recognition,  are,  to  a  cer 
tain  extent,  the  complement  of  each  other.  The  age 
could  not  do  with  one  of  them,  it  cannot  do  with  both. 
To  make  a  broad  and  rude  distinction,  to  suit  our  present 
purpose,  the  former,  as  critic,  deals  with  the  men  of 
action,  —  Mahomet,  Luther,  Cromwell ;  the  latter  with 
the  thinkers,  —  Plato,  Shakespeare,  Goethe  ;  for,  though 
both  have  written  upon  Goethe,  they  do  not  meet  in  him. 
The  one  has  more  sympathy  with  the  heroes,  or  prac 
tical  reformers,  the  other  with  the  observers,  or  philoso 
phers.  Put  their  worthies  together,  and  you  will  have  a 
pretty  fair  representation  of  mankind ;  yet  with  one  or 
more  memorable  exceptions.  To  say  nothing  of  Christ, 
who  yet  awaits  a  just  appreciation  from  literature,  the 
peacefully  practical  hero,  whom  Columbus  may  repre 
sent,  is  obviously  slighted  ;  but  above  and  after  all,  the 
Man  of  the  Age,  come  to  be  called  workingman,  it  is 
obvious  that  none  yet  speaks  to  his  condition,  for  the 
speaker  is  not  yet  in  his  condition. 

Like  speaks  to  like  only ;  labor  to  labor,  philosophy 
to  philosophy,  criticism  to  criticism,  poetry  to  poetry. 
Literature  speaks  how  much  still  to  the  past,  how  little 
to  the  future,  how  much  to  the  East,  how  little  to  the 
West,— 

In  the  East  fames  are  won, 

In  the  West  deeds  are  done. 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  239 

One  merit  in  Carlyle,  let  the  subject  be  what  it  may, 
is  the  freedom  of  prospect  he  allows,  the  entire  absence 
of  cant  and  dogma.  He  removes  many  cart-loads  of 
rubbish,  and  leaves  open  a  broad  highway.  His  writings 
are  all  unfenccd  on  the  side  of  the  future  and  the  possi 
ble.  Though  he  does  but  inadvertently  direct  our  eyes 
to  the  open  heavens,  nevertheless  he  lets  us  wander  broad 
ly  underneath,  and  shows  them  to  us  reflected  in  innumer 
able  pools  and  lakes. 

These  volumes  contain  not  the  highest,  but  a  very 
practicable  wisdom,  which  startles  and  provokes,  rather 
than  informs  us.  Carlyle  does  not  oblige  us  to  think ; 
we  have  thought  enough  for  him  already,  but  he  compels 
us  to  act.  "We  accompany  him  rapidly  through  an  end 
less  gallery  of  pictures,  and  glorious  reminiscences  of 
experiences  unimproved.  "  Have  you  not  had  Moses 
and  the  prophets  ?  Neither  will  ye  be  persuaded 
if  one  should  rise  from  the  dead."  There  is  no  calm 
philosophy  of  life  here,  such  as  you  might  put  at  the  end 
of  the  Almanac,  to  hang  over  the  farmer's  hearth,  how 
men  shall  live  in  these  winter,  in  these  summer  days. 
No  philosophy,  properly  speaking,  of  love,  or  friendship, 
or  religion,  or  politics,  or  education,  or  nature,  or  spirit ; 
perhaps  a  nearer  approach  to  a  philosophy  of  kingship, 
and  of  the  place  of  the  literary  man,  than  of  anything 
else.  A  rare  preacher,  with  prayer,  and  psalm,  and  ser 
mon,  and  benediction,  but  no  contemplation  of  man's  life 
from  the  serene  oriental  ground,  nor  yet  from  the  stirring 
occidental.  No  thanksgiving  sermon  for  the  holydays, 
or  the  Easter  vacations,  when  all  men  submit  to  float  on 
the  full  currents  of  life.  When  we  see  with  what  spirits, 
though  with  little  heroism  enough,  wood-choppers,  dro- 


240  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

vers,  and  apprentices  take  and  spend  life,  playing  all  day 
long,  sunning  themselves,  shading  themselves,  eating, 
drinking,  sleeping,  we  think  that  the  philosophy  of  their 
life  written  would  be  such  a  level  natural  history  as  the 
Gardener's  Calendar  and  the  works  of  the  early  botan 
ists,  inconceivably  slow  to  come  to  practical  conclusions. 

There  is  no  philosophy  here  for  philosophers,  only  as 
every  man  is  said  to  have  his  philosophy.  No  system 
but  such  as  is  the  man  himself;  and,  indeed,  he  stands 
compactly  enough  ;  no  progress  beyond  the  first  assertion 
and  challenge,  as  it  were,  with  trumpet  blast.  One 
thing  is  certain,  —  that  we  had  best  be  doing  something  in 
good  earnest  henceforth  forever  ;  that 's  an  indispensable 
philosophy.  The  before  impossible  precept,  "  know  thy 
self"  he  translates  into  the  partially  possible  one,  "  know 
what  tliou  canst  work  at."  Sartor  Eesartus  is,  perhaps, 
the  sunniest  and  most  philosophical,  as  it  is  the  most 
autobiographical  of  his  works,  in  which  he  drew  most 
largely  on  the  experience  of  his  youth.  But  we  miss 
everywhere  a  calm  depth,  like  a  lake,  even  stagnant,  and 
must  submit  to  rapidity  and  whirl,  as  on  skates,  with  all 
kinds  of  skilful  and  antic  motions,  sculling,  sliding,  cut 
ting  punch-bowls  and  rings,  forward  and  backward.  The 
talent  is  very  nearly  equal  to  the  genius.  Sometimes  it 
would  be  preferable  to  wade  slowly  through  a  Serbonian 
bog,  and  feel  the  juices  of  the  meadow. 

Beside  some  philosophers  of  larger  vision,  Carlyle 
stands  like  an  honest,  half-despairing  boy,  grasping  at 
some  details  only  of  their  world  systems.  Philosophy, 
certainly,  is  some  account  of  truths,  the  fragments  and 
very  insignificant  parts  of  which  man  will  practise  in  this 
workshop  ;  truths  infinite  and  in  harmony  with  infinity ; 
in  respect  to  which  the  very  objects  and  ends  of  the  so- 


THOMAS   CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  241 

called  practical  philosopher  will  be  mere  propositions, 
like  the  rest.  It  would  be  no  reproach  to  a  philosopher, 
that  he  knew  the  future  better  than  the  past,  or  even 
than  the  present.  It  is  better  worth  knowing.  He  will 
prophesy,  tell  what  is  to  be,  or  in  other  words,  what 
alone  is,  under  appearances,  laying  little  stress  on  the 
boiling  of  the  pot,  or  the  condition-of-England  question. 
He  has  no  more  to  do  with  the  condition  of  England 
than  with  her  national  debt,  which  a  vigorous  generation 
would  not  inherit.  The  philosopher's  conception  of  things 
will,  above  all,  be  truer  than  other  men's,  and  his  phi- 
"losophy  will  subordinate  all  the  circumstances  of  life. 
To  live  like  a  philosopher  is  to  live,  not  foolishly,  like 
other  men,  but  wisely  and  according  to  universal  laws. 
If  Carlyle  does  not  take  two  steps  in  philosophy,  are 
there  any  who  take  three  ?  Philosophy  having  crept 
clinging  to  the  rocks,  so  far,  puts  out  its  feelers  many 
ways  in  vain.  It  would  be  hard  to  surprise  him  by  the 
relation  of  any  important  human  experience,  but  in  some 
nook  or  corner  of  his  works  you  will  find  that  this,  too, 
was  sometimes  dreamed  of  in  his  philosophy. 

To  sum  up  our  most  serious  objections  in  a  few 
words,  we  should  say  that  Carlyle  indicates  a  depth,  — 
and  we  mean  not  impliedly,  but  distinctly,  —  which  he 
neglects  to  fathom.  We  want  to  know  more  about  that 
which  he  wants  to  know  as  well.  If  any  luminous  star 
or  undissolvable  nebula  is  visible  from  his  station  which 
is  not  visible  from  ours,  the  interests  of  science  require 
that  the  fact  be  communicated  to  us.  The  universe 
expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty  in  his  parallel  of  lati 
tude.  We  want  to  hear  more  of  his  inmost  life;  his 
hymn  and  prayer  more  ;  his  elegy  and  eulogy  less ;  that 
he  should  speak  more  from  his  character,  and  less  from 
11  p 


242  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

his  talent ;  communicate  centrally  with  his  readers,  and 
not  by  a  side  ;  that  he  should  say  what  he  believes,  with 
out  suspecting  that  men  disbelieve  it,  out  of  his  never- 
misunderstood  nature.  His  genius  can  cover  all  the 
land  with  gorgeous  palaces,  but  the  reader  does  not 
abide  in  them,  but  pitches  his  tent  rather  in  the  desert 
and  on  the  mountain-peak. 

When  we  look  about  for  something  to  quote,  as  the 
fairest  specimen  of  the  man,  we  confess  that  we  labor 
under  an  unusual  difficulty  ;  for  his  philosophy  is  so 
little  of  the  proverbial  or  sentential  kind,  and  opens  so 
gradually,  rising  insensibly  from  the  reviewer's  level, 
and  developing  its  thought  completely  and  in  detail,  that 
we  look  in  vain  for  the  brilliant  passages,  for  point  and 
antithesis,  and  must  end  by  quoting  his  works  entire. 
What  in  a  writer  of  less  breadth  would  have  been  the 
proposition  which  would  have  bounded  his  discourse,  his 
column  of  victory,  his  Pillar  of  Hercules,  and  ne  plus  ul 
tra,  is  in  Carlyle  frequently  the  same  thought  unfolded ; 
no  Pillar  of  Hercules,  but  a  considerable  prospect,  north 
and  south,  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  There  are  other  pil 
lars  of  Hercules,  like  beacons  and  light-houses,  still  further 
in  the  horizon,  toward  Atlantis,  set  up  by  a  few  ancient 
and  modern  travellers ;  but,  so  far  as  this  traveller  goes, 
he  clears  and  colonizes,  and  all  the  surplus  population  of 
London  is  bound  thither  at  once.  What  we  would  quote 
is,  in  fact,  his  vivacity,  and  not  any  particular  wisdom  or 
sense,  which  last  is  ever  synonymous  with  sentence  \_sen- 
tentia] ,  as  in  his  contemporaries  Coleridge,  Landor,  and 
Wordsworth.  We  have  not  attempted  to  discriminate 
between  his  works,  but  have  rather  regarded  them  all  as 
one  work,  as  is  the  man  himself.  We  have  not  examined 
so  much  as  remembered  them.  To  do  otherwise  would 


THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WOEKS.  243 

have  required  a  more  indifferent,  and  perhaps  even  less 
just  review,  than  the  present. 

All  his  works  might  well  enough  be  embraced  under 
the  title  of  one  of  them,  a  good  specimen  brick,  "  On 
Heroes,  Hero- Worship,  and  the  Heroic  in  History." 
Of  this  department  he  is  the  Chief  Professor  in  the 
"World's  University,  and  even  leaves  Plutarch  behind. 
Such  intimate  and  living,  such  loyal  and  generous  sym 
pathy  with  the  heroes  of  history,  not  one  in  one  age 
only,  but  forty  in  forty  ages,  such  an  unparalleled  re 
viewing  and  greeting  of  all  past  worth,  with  exceptions, 
to  be  sure,  —  but  exceptions  were  the  rule  before,  —  it 
was,  indeed,  to  make  this  the  age  of  review  writing,  as 
if  now  one  period  of  the  human  story  were  completing 
itself,  and  getting  its  accounts  settled.  This  soldier  has 
told  the  stories  with  new  emphasis,  and  will  be  a  memo 
rable  hander-down  of  fame  to  posterity.  And  with 
what  wise  discrimination  he  has  selected  his  men,  with 
reference  both  to  his  own  genius  and  to  theirs,  —  Ma 
homet,  Dante,  Cromwell,  Voltaire,  Johnson,  Burns, 
Goethe,  Bichter,  Schiller,  Mirabeau,  —  could  any  of 
these  have  been  spared?  These  we  wanted  to  hear 
about.  We  have  not  as  commonly  the  cold  and  refined 
judgment  of  the  scholar  and  critic  merely,  but  something 
more  human  and  affecting.  These  eulogies  have  the  glow 
and  warmth  of  friendship.  There  is  sympathy,  not 
with  mere  fames,  and  formless,  incredible  things,  but 
with  kindred  men,  —  not  transiently,  but  life-long  he  has 
walked  with  them. 

No  doubt,  some  of  Carlyle's  worthies,  should  they 
ever  return  to  earth,  would  find  themselves  unpleasantly 
put  upon  their  good  behavior,  to  sustain  their  charac 
ters;  but  if  he  can  return  a  man's  life  more  perfect  to 


244  THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

our  hands  than  it  was  left  at  his  death,  following  out  the 
design  of  its  author,  we  shall  have  no  great  cause  to 
complain.  We  do  not  want  a  daguerreotype  likeness. 
All  biography  is  the  life  of  Adam, — a  much-experienced 
man,  —  and  time  withdraws  something  partial  from  the 
story  of  every  individual,  that  the  historian  may  supply 
something  general.  If  these  virtues  were  not  in  this 
man,  perhaps  they  are  in  his  biographer,  —  no  fatal  mis 
take.  Really,  in  any  other  sense,  we  never  do,  nor 
desire  to,  come  at  the  historical  man, — unless  we  rob 
his  grave,  that  is  the  nearest  approach.  Why  did  he 
die,  then  ?  He  is  with  his  bones,  surely. 

No  doubt  Carlyle  has  a  propensity  to  exaggerate  the 
heroic  in  history,  that  is,  he  creates  you  an  ideal 
hero  rather  than  another  thing:  he  has  most  of  that 
material.  This  we  allow  in  all  its  senses,  and  in  one 
narrower  sense  it  is  not  so  convenient.  Yet  what  were 
history  if  he  did  not  exaggerate  it  ?  How  comes  it  that 
history  never  has  to  wait  for  facts,  but  for  a  man  to 
write  it  ?  The  ages  may  go  on  forgetting  the  facts  never 
so  long,  he  can  remember  two  for  every  one  forgotten. 
The  musty  records  of  history,  like  the  catacombs,  contain 
the  perishable  remains,  but  only  in  the  breast  of  genius 
are  embalmed  the  souls  of  heroes.  There  is  very  little 
of  what  is  called  criticism  here  ;  it  is  love  and  reverence, 
rather,  which  deal  with  qualities  not  relatively,  but  abso 
lutely  great;  for  whatever  is  admirable  in  a  man  is 
something  infinite,  to  which  we  cannot  set  bounds. 
These  sentiments  allow  the  mortal  to  die,  the  immortal 
and  divine  to  survive.  There  is  something  antique,  even, 
in  his  style  of  treating  his  subject,  reminding  us  that 
Heroes  and  Demi-gods,  Fates  and  Furies,  still  exist ;  the 
common  man  is  nothing  to  him,  but  after  death  the  hero 


THOMAS   CARLYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  245 

is  apotheosized  and  has  a  place  in  heaven,  as  in  the 
religion  of  the  Greeks. 

Exaggeration !  was  ever  any  virtue  attributed  .^.to  a 
man  without  exaggeration  ?  was  ever  any  vice,  without 
infinite  exaggeration  ?  Do  we  not  exaggerate  ourselves 
to  ourselves,  or  do  we  recognize  ourselves  for  the  actual 
men  we  are  ?  Are  we  not  all  great  men  ?  Yet  what 
are  we  actually  to  speak  of?  We  live  by  exaggeration. 
What  else  is  it  to  anticipate  more  than  we  enjoy  ?  The 
lightning  is  an  exaggeration  of  the  light.  Exaggerated 
history  is  poetry,  and  truth  referred  to  a  new  standard. 
To  a  small  man  every  greater  is  an  exaggeration.  He 
who  cannot  exaggerate  is  not  qualified  to  utter  truth. 
No  truth,  we  think,  was  ever  expressed  but  with  this  sort 
of  emphasis,  so  that  for  the  time  there  seemed  to  be  no 
other.  Moreover,  you  must  speak  loud  to  those  who 
are  hard  of  hearing,  and  so  you  acquire  a  habit  of  shout 
ing  to  those  who  are  not.  By  an  immense  exaggeration 
we  appreciate  our  Greek  poetry  and  philosophy,  and 
Egyptian  ruins ;  our  Shakespeares  and  Miltons,  our 
Liberty  and  Christianity.  We  give  importance  to  this 
hour  over  all  other  hours.  We  do  not  live  by  justice, 
but  by  grace.  As  the  sort  of  justice  which  concerns  us 
in  our  daily  intercourse  is  not  that  administered  by  the 
judge,  so  the  historical  justice  which  we  prize  is  not 
arrived  at  by  nicely  balancing  the  evidence.  In  order 
to  appreciate  any,  even  the  humblest  man,  you  must 
first,  by  some  good  fortune,  have  acquired  a  sentiment 
of  admiration,  even  of  reverence,  for  him,  and  there 
never  were  such  exaggerators  as  these. 

To  try  him  by  the  German  rule  of  referring  an  author 
to  his  own  standard,  we  will  quote  the  following  from 
Carlyle's  remarks  on  history,  and  leave  the  reader  to 


246  THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS. 

consider  how  far  his  practice  has  been  consistent  with 
his  theory.  "  Truly,  if  History  is  Philosophy  teaching 
by  Experience,  the  writer  fitted  to  compose  history  is 
hitherto  an  unknown  man.  The  Experience  itself  would 
require  All-knowledge  to  record  it,  were  the  All-wisdom, 
needful  for  such  Philosophy  as  would  interpret  it,  to  be 
had  for  asking.  Better  were  it  that  mere  earthly  Histo 
rians  should  lower  such  pretensions,  more  suitable  for 
Omniscience  than  for  human  science  ;  and  aiming  only 
at  some  picture  of  the  things  acted,  which  picture  itself 
will  at  best  be  a  poor  approximation,  leave  the  inscru 
table  purport  of  them  an  acknowledged  secret  ;  or,  at 
most,  in  reverent  faith,  far  different  from  that  teaching 
of  Philosophy,  pause  over  the  mysterious  vestiges  of 
Him  whose  path  is  in  the  great  deep  of  Time,  whom 
History  indeed  reveals,  but  only  all  History,  and  in 
Eternity,  will  clearly  reveal." 

Carlyle  is  a  critic  who  lives  in  London  to  tell  this 
generation  who  have  been  the  great  men  of  our  race. 
We  have  read  that  on  some  exposed  place  in  the  city  of 
Geneva,  they  have  fixed  a  brazen  indicator  for  the  use  of 
travellers,  with  the  names  of  the  mountain  summits  in  the 
horizon  marked  upon  it,  "  so  that  by  taking  sight  across 
the  index  you  can  distinguish  them  at  once.  You  will 
not  mistake  Mont  Blanc,  if  you,  see  him,  but  until  you 
get  accustomed  to  the  panorama,  you  may  easily  mistake 
one  of  his  court  for  the  king."  It  stands  there  a  piece 
of  mute  brass,  that  seems  nevertheless  to  know  in  what 
vicinity  it  is  :  and  there  perchance  it  will  stand,  when 
the  nation  that  placed  it  there  has  passed  away,  still  in 
sympathy  with  the  mountains,  forever  discriminating  in 
the  desert. 


THOMAS  CAELYLE  AND  HIS  WORKS.  247 

So,  we  may  say,  stands  this  man,  pointing  as  long  as 
he  lives,  in  obedience  to  some  spiritual  magnetism,  to 
the  summits  in  the  historical  horizon,  for  the  guidance 
of  his  fellows. 

Truly,  our  greatest  blessings  are  very  cheap.  To  have 
our  sunlight  without  paying  for  it,  without  any  duty 
levied,  —  to  have  our  poet  there  in  England,  to  fur 
nish  us  entertainment,  and,  what  is  better,  provocation, 
from  year  to  year,  all  our  lives  long,  to  make  the  world 
seem  richer  for  us,  the  age  more  respectable,  and  life 
better  worth  the  living,  —  all  without  expense  of  ac 
knowledgment  even,  but  silently  accepted  out  of  the  east, 
like  morning  light  as  a  matter  of  course. 


LIFE   WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE  * 


AT  a  lyceum,  not  long  since,  I  felt  that  the  lecturer 
had  chosen  a  theme  too  foreign  to  himself,  and  so  failed 
to  interest  me  as  much  as  he  might  have  done.  He  de 
scribed  things  not  in  or  near  to  his  heart,  but  toward  his 
extremities  and  superficies.  There  was,  in  this  sense, 
no  truly  central  or  centralizing  thought  in  the  lecture. 
I  would  have  had  him  deal  with  his  privates!  experience, 
as  the  poet  does.  The  greatest  compliment  that  was 
ever  paid  me  was  when  one  asked  me  what  /  thought, 
and  attended  to  my  answer.  I  am  surprised,  as  well  as 
delighted,  when  this  happens,  it  is  such  a  rare  use  he 
would  make  of  me,  as  if  he  were  acquainted  with  the 
tool.  Commonly,  if  men  want  anything  of  me,  it  is  only 
to  know  how  many  acres  I  make  of  their  land,  —  since 
I  am  a  surveyor,  —  or,  at  most,  what  trivial  news  I  have 
burdened  myself  with.  They  never  will  go  to  law  for 
my  meat  ;  they  prefer  the  shell.  A  man  once  came  a 
considerable  distance  to  ask  me  to  lecture  on  Slavery  ; 
but  on  conversing  with  him,  I  found  that  he  and  his 
clique  expected  seven  eighths  of  the  lecture  to  be  theirs, 
and  only  one  eighth  mine  ;  so  I  declined.  I  take  it  for 
granted,  when  I  am  invited  to  lecture  anywhere,  —  for 
I  have  had  a  little  experience  in  that  business,  —  that 
there  is  a  desire  to  hear  what  /  think  on  some  subject, 

*  Atlantic  Monthly,  Boston,  October,  1363. 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  249 

though  I  may  be  the  greatest  fool  in  the  country,  —  and 
not  that  I  should  say  pleasant  things  merely,  or  such  as 
the  audience  will  assent  to ;  and  I  resolve,  accordingly, 
that  I  will  give  them  a  strong  dose  of  myself.  They 
have  sent  for  me,  and  engaged  to  pay  for  me,  and  I  am 
determined  that  they  shall  have  me,  though  I  bore  them 
beyond  all  precedent. 

So  now  I  would  say  something  similar  to  you,  my 
readers.  Since  you  are  my  readers,  and  I  have  not 
been  much  of  a  traveller,  I  will  not  talk  about  people  a 
thousand  miles  off,  but  come  as  near  home  as  I  can. 
As  the  time  is  short,  I  will  leave  out  all  the  flattery, 
and  retain  all  the  criticism. 

Let  us  consider  the  way  in  which  we  spend  our  lives. 

This  world  is  a  place  of  business.  What  an  infinite 
bustle  !  I  am  awaked  almost  every  night  by  the  panting 
of  the  locomotive.  It  interrupts  my  dreams.  There  is 
no  sabbath.  It  would  be  glorious  to  see  mankind  at 
leisure  for  once.  It  is  nothing  but  work,  work,  work. 
I  cannot  easily  buy  a  blank-book  to  write  thoughts  in  ; 
they  are  commonly  ruled  for  dollars  and  cents.  An 
Irishman,  seeing  me  making  a  minute  in  the  fields,  took 
it  for  granted  that  I  was  calculating  my  wages.  If  a 
man  was  tossed  out  of  a  window  when  an  infant,  and  so 
made  a  cripple  for  life,  or  scared  out  of  his  wits  by  the 
Indians,  it  is  regretted  chiefly  because  he  was  thus 
incapacitated  for  —  business  !  I  think  that  there  is  noth 
ing,  not  even  crime,  more  opposed  to  poetry,  to  philoso 
phy,  ay,  to  life  itself,  than  this  incessant  business. 

There  is  a  coarse  and  boisterous  money-making  fellow 

in  the  outskirts  of  our  town,  who  is  going  to  build  a 

bank-wall  under  the  hill  along  the  edge  of  his  meadow. 

The  powers  have  put  this  into  his  head  to  keep  him  out 

11* 


250  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

of  mischief,  and  he  wishes  me  to  spend  three  weeks 
digging  there  with  him.  The  result  will  be  that  he  will 
perhaps  get  some  more  money  to  hoard,  and  leave  for 
his  heirs  to  spend  foolishly.  If  I  do  this,  most  will 
commend  me  as  an  industrious  and  hard-working  man  ; 
but  if  I  choose  to  devote  myself  to  certain  labors  which 
yield  more  real  profit,  though  but  little  money,  they 
may  be  inclined  to  look  on  me  as  an  idler.  Neverthe 
less,  as  I  do  not  need  the  police  of  meaningless  labor  to 
regulate  me,  and  do  not  see  anything  absolutely  praise 
worthy  in  this  fellow's  undertaking,  any  more  than  in 
many  an  enterprise  of  our  own  or  foreign  governments, 
however  amusing  it  may  be  to  him  or  them,  I  prefer  to 
finish  my  education  at  a  different  school. 

If  a  man  walk  in  the  woods  for  love  of  them  half  of 
each  day,  he  is  in  danger  of  being  regarded  as  a  loafer ; 
but  if  he  spends  his  whole  day  as  a  speculator,  shearing 
off  those  woods  and  making  earth  bald  before  her  time, 
he  is  esteemed  an  industrious  and  enterprising  citizen. 
As  if  a  town  had  no  interest  in  its  forests  but  to  cut 
them  down ! 

Most  men  would  feel  insulted,  if  it  were  proposed  to 
employ  them  in  throwing  stones  over  a  wall,  and  then  in 
throwing  them  back,  merely  that  they  might  earn  their 
wages.  But  many  are  no  more  worthily  employed  now. 
For  instance :  just  after  sunrise,  one  summer  morning, 
I  noticed  one  of  my  neighbors  walking  beside  his  team, 
which  was  slowly  drawing  a  heavy  hewn  stone  swung 
under  the  axle,  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of  indus 
try,  —  his  day's  work  begun,  —  his  brow  commenced  to 
sweat,  —  a  reproach  to  all  sluggards  and  idlers,  —  paus 
ing  abreast  the  shoulders  of  his  oxen,  and  half  turning 
round  with  a  flourish  of  his  merciful  whip,  while  they 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  251 

gained  their  length  on  him.  And  I  thought,  Such  is 
the  labor  which  the  American  Congress  exists  to  protect, 
—  honest,  manly  toil,  —  honest  as  the  day  is  long, — 
that  makes  his  bread  taste  sweet,  and  keeps  society 
sweet,  —  which  all  men  respect  and  have  consecrated : 
one  of  the  sacred  band,  doing  the  needful  but  irksome 
drudgery.  Indeed,  I  felt  a  slight  reproach,  because  I 
observed  this  from  a  window,  and  was  not  abroad  and 
stirring  about  a  similar  business.  The  day  went  by, 
and  at  evening  I  passed  the  yard  of  another  neighbor, 
who  keeps  many  servants,  and  spends  much  money  fool 
ishly,  while  he  adds  nothing  to  the  common  stock,  and 
there  I  saw  the  stone  of  the  morning  lying  beside  a 
whimsical  structure  intended  to  adorn  this  Lord  Timo 
thy  Dexter's  premises,  and  the  dignity  forthwith  departed 
from  the  teamster's  labor,  in  my  eyes.  In  my  opinion, 
the  sun  was  made  to  light  worthier  toil  than  this.  I 
may  add,  that  his  employer  has  since  run  off,  in  debt  to 
a  good  part  of  the  town,  and,  after  passing  through 
Chancery,  has  settled  somewhere  else,  there  to  become 
once  more  a  patron  of  the  arts. 

The  ways  by  which  you  may  get  money  almost  with 
out  exception  lead  downward.  To  have  done  anything 
by  which  youearned  money  merely  is  to  have  been  truly 
jdig^or  worseT  I^vJ^_jabpj[e£_ge^s_no  more  than  the 
wngps_whjrh  hifl  omp1nyor  pnyn-him,  ho  in  cheated,  he 
cheats  himself.  If  you  would  get  money  as  a  writer  or 
lecturer,  you  must  be  popular,  which  is  to  go  down  per 
pendicularly.  Those  services  which  the  community 
will  most  readily  pay  for,  it  is  most  disagreeable  to  ren 
der.  You  are  paid  for  being  something  less  than  a  man. 
The  State  does  not  commonly  reward  a  genius  any 
more  wisely.  Even  the  poet-laureate  would  rather  not 


252  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

have  to  celebrate  the  accidents  of  royalty.  He  must 
be  bribed  with  a  pipe  of  wine ;  and  perhaps  another  poet 
is  called  away  from  his  muse  to  gauge  that  very  pipe, 
i  As  for  my  own  business,  even  that  kind  of  surveying 
•which  I  could  do  with  most  satisfaction,  my  employers  do 
not  want.  They  would  prefer  that  I  should  do  my  work 
coarsely  and  not  too  well,  ay,  not  well  enough.  When 
I  observe  that  there  are  different  ways  of  surveying,  my 
employer  commonly  asks  which  will  give  him  the  most 
land,  not  which  is  most  correct.  I  once  invented  a  rule 
for  measuring  cord-wood,  and  tried  to  introduce  it  in 
Boston ;  but  the  measurer  there  told  me  that  the  sellers 
did  not  wish  to  have  their  wood  measured  correctly,  — 
that  he  was  already  too  accurate  for  them,  and  therefore 
they  commonly  got  their  wood  measured  in  Charlestown 
before  crossing  the  bridge. 

\  The  aim  of  the  laborer  should  be,  not  to  get  his  living, 
to  get  "  a  good  job,"  but  to  perform  well  a  certain  work ; 
and,  even  in  a  pecuniary  sense,  it  would  be  economy  for 
a  town  to  pay  its  laborers  so  well  that  they  would  not 
feel  that  they  were  working  for  low  ends,  as  for  a  liveli 
hood  merely,  but  for  scientific,  or  even  moral  ends.  Do 
\/  not  hire  a  man  who  does  your  work  for  money,  but  him 
who  does  it  for  love  of  it. 

It  is  remarkable  that  there  are  few  men  so  well  em 
ployed,  so  much  to  their  minds,  but  that  a  little  money 
or  fame  would  commonly  buy  them  off  from  their  pres 
ent  pursuit.  I  see  advertisements  for  active  young 
men,  as  if  activity  were  the  whole  of  a  young  man's 
capital.  Yet  I  have  been  surprised  when  one  has  with 
confidence  proposed  to  me,  a  grown  man,  to  embark  in 
some  enterprise  of  his,  as  if  I  had  absolutely  nothing  to 
do,  my  life  having  been  a  complete  failure  hitherto. 


LIFE  WITHOUT   PRINCIPLE.  253 

What  a  doubtful  compliment  this  is  to  pay  me  !  As  if  he 
had  met  me  half-way  across  the  ocean  beating  up  against 
the  wind,  but  bound  nowhere,  and  proposed  to  me  to  go 
along  with  him !  If  I  did,  what  do  you  think  the  un 
derwriters  would  say  ?  No,  no !  I  am  not  without 
employment  at  this  stage  of  the  voyage.  To  tell  the 
truth,  I  saw  an  advertisement  for  able-bodied  seamen, 
when  I  was  a  boy,  sauntering  in  my  native  port,  and  as 
soon  as  I  came  of  age  I  embarked. 

The  community  has  no  bribe  that  will  tempt  a  wise 
man.  You  may  raise  money  enough  to  tunnel  a  moun 
tain,  but  you  cannot  raise  money  enough  to  hire  a  man 
who  is  minding  his  own  business.  An  efficient  and 
valuable  man  does  what  he  can,  whether  the  community 
pay  him  for  it  or  not.  The  inefficient  offer  their  in 
efficiency  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  are  forever  expecting 
to  be  put  into  office.  One  would  suppose  that  they 
were  rarely  disappointed. 

Perhaps  I  am  more  than  usually  jealous  with  respect 
to  my  freedom.  I  feel  that  my  connection  with  and 
obligation  to  society  are  still  very  slight  and  transient. 
Those  slight  labors  which  afford  me  a  livelihood,  and  by 
which  it  is  allowed  that  I  am  to  some  extent  serviceable 
to  my  contemporaries,  are  as  yet  commonly  a  pleasure 
to  me,  and  I  am  not  often  reminded  that  they  are  a  ne 
cessity.  So  far  I  am  successful.  But  I  foresee,  that, 
if  my  wants  should  be  much  increased,  the  labor  re 
quired  to  supply  them  would  become  a  drudgery.  If  I 
should  sell  both  my  forenoons  and  afternoons  to  society, 
as  most  appear  to  do,  I  am  sure,  that  for  me  there 
would  be  nothing  left  worth  living  for.  I  trust  that  I 
shall  never  thus  sellmy  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage.  ^ 
I  wish  to  suggest  that  a  man  may  be  very  industrious, 


254  LIFE  WITHOUT  PEINCIPLE. 

and  yet   not  spend  his  time  well.     There  is  no  more 
fatal  blunderer  than  he  who  consumes  the  greater  part  K 
of  his  life  getting  his  living.     All  great  enterprises  are 
self-supporting.     The  poet,  for   instance,  must   sustain 
his  body  by  his  poetry,  as  a  steam  planing-mill  feeds  its 
boilers  with  the  shavings  it  makes.     You  must  get  your  . 
living  by  loving.     But  as  it  is   said  of  the  merchants 
that  ninety-seven  in  a  hundred  fail,  so  the  life  of  men 
generally,  tried  by  this  standard,  is  a  failure,  and  bank 
ruptcy  may  be  surely  prophesied. 

Merely  to  come  into  the  world  the  heir  of  a  fortune  is 
not  to  be  born,  but  to  be  still-born,  rather.  To  be  sup 
ported  by  the  charity  of  friends,  or  a  government-pen 
sion,  —  provided  you  continue  to  breathe,  —  by  whatever 
fine  synonymes  you  describe  these  relations,  is  to  go  into 
the  almshouse.  On  Sundays  the  poor  debtor  goes  to 
church  to  take  an  account  of  stock,  and  finds,  of  course, 
that  his  outgoes  have  been  greater  than  his  income.  In 
the  Catholic  Church,  especially,  they  go  into  Chancery, 
make  a  clean  confession,  give  up  all,  and  think  to  start 
again.  Thus  men  will  lie  on  their  backs,  talking  about 
the  fall  of  man,  and  never  make  an  effort  to  get  up. 

As  for  the  comparative  demand  which  men  make  on 
life,  it  is  an  important  difference  between  two,  that  the 
one  is  satisfied  with  a  level  success,  that  his  marks  can 
all  be  hit  by  point-blank  shots,  but  the  other,  however 
low  and  unsuccessful  his  life  may  be,  constantly  elevates 
his  aim,  though  at  a  very  slight  angle  to  the  horizon.  I 
should ,  much  rather  be  the  last  man,  —  though,  as  the 
Orientals  say,  "  Greatness  doth  not  approach  him  who  is 
forever  looking  down ;  and  all  those  who  are  looking 
high  are  growing  poor." 

It  is  remarkable  that  there  is  little  or  nothing  to  be 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  255 

remembered  written  on  the  subject  of  getting  a  living : 
now  to  make  getting  a  living  not  merely  honest  and 
honorable,  but  altogether  inviting  and  glorious;  for  if  \ 
getting  a  living  is  not  so,  then  living  is  not.  One  would 
think,  from  looking  at  literature,  that  this  question  had 
never  disturbed  a  solitary  individual's  musings.  Is  it 
that  men  are  too  much  disgusted  with  their  experience  to 
speak  of  it  ?  The  lesson  of  value  which  money  teaches, 
which  the  Author  of  the  Universe  has  taken  so  much 
pains  to  teach  us,  we  are  inclined  to  skip  altogether.  As 
for  the  means  of  living,  it  is  wonderful  how  indifferent 
men  of  all  classes  are  about  it,  even  reformers,  so 
called,  —  whether  they  inherit,  or  earn,  or  steal  it.  I 
think  that  Society  has  done  nothing  for  us  in  this  respect, 
or  at  least  has  undone  what  she  has  done.  Cold  and 
hunger  seem  more  friendly  to  my  nature  than  those 
methods  which  men  have  adopted  and  advise  to  ward 
them  off. 

The  title  wise  is,  for  the  most  part,  falsely  applied. 
How  can  one  be  a  wise  man,  if  he  does  not  know  any 
better  how  to  live  than  other  men  ?  —  if  he  is  only  more 
cunning  and  intellectually  subtle  ?  Does  Wisdom  work 
in  a  tread-mill  ?  or  does  she  teach  how  to  succeed  by  her 
example  ?  Is  there  any  such  thing  as  wisdom  not  applied 
to  life  ?  Is  she  merely  the  miller  who  grinds  the  finest 
logic  ?  It  is  pertinent  to  ask  if  Plato  got  his  living  in  a 
better  way  or  more  successfully  than  his  contempora 
ries,  —  or  did  he  succumb  to  the  difficulties  of  life  like 
other  men  ?  Did  he  seem  to  prevail  over  some  of  them 
merely  by  indifference,  or  by  assuming  grand  airs  ?  or 
find  it  easier  to  live,  because  his  aunt  remembered  him 
in  her  will  ?  The  ways  in  which  most  men  get  their 
living,  that  is,  live,  are  mere  make-shifts,  and  a  shirking 


256  LIFE  WITHOUT  PEINCIPLE. 

of  the  real  business  of  life,  —  chiefly  because  they  do  not 
know,  but  partly  because  they  do  not  mean,  any  better. 

The  rush  to  California,  for  instance,  and  the  atti 
tude,  not  merely  of  merchants,  but  of  philosophers  and 
prophets,  so  called,  in  relation  to  it,  reflect  the  greatest 
disgrace  on  mankind.  That  so  many  are  ready  to  live  by 
luck,  and  so  get  the  means  of  commanding  the  labor  of 
others  less  lucky,  without  contributing  any  value  to  soci 
ety  !  And  that  is  called  enterprise  !  I  know  of  no  more 
startling  development  of  the  immorality  of  trade,  and  all 
the  common  modes  of  getting  a  living.  The  philosophy 
and  poetry  and  religion  of  such  a  mankind  are  not  worth 
the  dust  of  a  puff-ball.  The  hog  that  gets  his  living  by 
rooting,  stirring  up  the  soil  so,  would  be  ashamed  of  such 
company.  If  I  could  command  the  wealth  of  all  the 
worlds  by  lifting  my  finger,  I  would  not  pay  such  a  price 
for  it.  Even  Mahomet  knew  that  God  did  not  make 
this  world  in  jest.  It  makes  God  to  be  a  moneyed  gen 
tleman  who  scatters  a  handful  of  pennies  in  order  to  see 
mankind  scramble  for  them.-  The  world's  raffle  !  A 
subsistence  in  the  domains  of  Nature  a  thing  to  be  raffled 
for  !  What'a  comment,  what  a  satire,  on  our  institutions  ! 
The  conclusion  will  be,  that  mankind  will  hang  itself 
upon  a  tree.  And  have  all  the  precepts  in  all  the  Bibles 
taught  men  only  this  ?  and  is  the  last  and  most  admirable 
invention  of  the  human  race  only  an  improved  muck 
rake  ?  Is  this  the  ground  on  which  Orientals  and  Oc 
cidentals  meet  ?  Did  God  direct  us  so  to  get  our  living, 
digging  where  we  never  planted,  —  and  He  would,  per 
chance,  reward  us  with  lumps  of  gold  ? 

God  gave  the  righteous  man  a  certificate  entitling  him 
to  food  and  raiment,  but  the  unrighteous  man  found  a 
fac-simile  of  the  same  in  God's  coffers,  and  appropriated 


LIFE   WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  257 

it,  and  obtained  food  and  raiment  like  the  former.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  extensive  systems  of  counterfeiting  that 
the  world  has  seen.  I  did  not  know  that  mankind  were 
suffering  for  want  of  gold.  I  have  seen  a  little  of  it.  I 
know  that  it  is  very  malleable,  but  not  so  malleable  as 
wit.  A  grain  of  gold  will  gild  a  great  surface,  but  not  so 
much  as  a  grain  of  wisdom. 

(The  gold-digger  in  the  ravines  of  the  mountains  is  as 
much  a  gambler  as  his  fellow  in  the  saloons  of  San  Fran 
cisco.  What  difference  does  it  make,  whether  you  shake 
dirt  or  shake  dice  ?  If  you  win,  society  is  the  loser. 
The  gold-digger  is  the  enemy  of  the  honest  laborer, 
whatever  checks  and  compensations  there  may  be.  It  is 
not  enough  to  tell  me  that  you  worked  hard  to  get  your 
gold.  So  does  the  Devil  work  hard.  \  The  way  of  trans 
gressors  may  be  hard  in  many  respects.  The  humblest 
observer  who  goes  to  the  mines  sees  and  says  that  gold- 
digging  is  of  the  character  of  a  lottery ;  the  gold  thus  ob 
tained  is  not  the  same  thing  with  the  wages  of  honest 
toil.  But,  practically,  he  forgets  what  he  has  seen,  for 
he  has  seen  only  the  fact,  not  the  principle,  and  goes 
into  trade  there,  that  is,  buys  a  ticket  in  what  commonly 
proves  another  lottery,  where  the  fact  is  not  so  obvious. 
After  reading  Hewitt's  account  of  the  Australian  gold- 
diggings  one  evening,  I  had  in  my  mind's  eye,  all  night, 
the  numerous  valleys,  with  their  streams,  all  cut  up  with 
foul  pits,  from  ten  to  one  hundred  feet  deep,  and  half  a 
dozen  feet  across,  as  close  as  they  can  be  dug,  and  partly 
filled  with  water,  —  the  locality  to  which  men  furiously 
rush  to  probe  for  their  fortunes,  —  uncertain  where  they 
shall  break  ground,  —  not  knowing  but  the  gold  is  under 
their  camp  itself,  —  sometimes  digging  one  hundred  and 
sixty  feet  before  they  strike  the  vein,  or  then  missing  it 

Q 


258  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

by  a  foot,t —  turned  into  demons,  and  regardless  of  each 
other's  rights,  in  their  thirst  for  riches,  —  whole  valleys, 
for  thirty  miles,  suddenly  honeycombed  by  the  pits  of 
the  miners,  so  that  even  hundreds  are  drowned  in  them,  — 
standing  in  water,  and  covered  with  mud  and  clay,  they 
work  night  and  day,  dying  of  exposure  and  disease. 
Having  read  this,  and  partly  forgotten  it,  I  was  thinking, 
accidentally,  of  my  own  unsatisfactory  life,  doing  as  others 
do ;  and  with  that  vision  of  the  diggings  still  before  me, 
I  asked  myself,  why  /might  not  be  washing  some  gold 
daily,  though  it  were  only  the  finest  particles,  —  why  / 
might  not  sink  a  shaft  down  to  the  gold  within  me,  and 
work  that  mine.  There  is  a  Ballarat,  a  Bendigo  for 
you,  —  what  though  it  were  a  sulky-gully  ?  At  any 
rate,  I  might  pursue  some  path,  however  solitary  and  nar 
row  and  crooked,  in  which  I  could  walk  with  love  and 
reverence.  Wherever  a  man  separates  from  the  multi 
tude,  and  goes  his  own  way  in  this  mood,  there  indeed  is 
a  fork  in  the  road,  though  ordinary  travellers  may  see 
only  a  gap  in  the  paling.  His  solitary  path  across-lots 
will  turn  out  the  higher  way  of  the  two. 

Men  rush  to  California  and  Australia  as  if  the  true 
gold  were  to  be  found  in  that  direction ;  but  that  is  to 
go  to  the  very  opposite  extreme  to  where  it  lies.  They 
go  prospecting  farther  and  farther  away  from  the  true 
lead,  and  are  most  unfortunate  when  they  think  them 
selves  most  successful.  Is  not  our  native  soil  auriferous  ? 
Does  not  a  stream  from  the  golden  mountains  flow 
through  our  native  valley  ?  and  has  not  this  for  more  than 
geologic  ages  been  bringing  down  the  shining  particles 
and  forming  the  nuggets  for  us  ?  Yet,  strange  to  tell,  if 
a  digger  steal  away,  prospecting  for  this  true  gold,  into 
the  unexplored  solitudes  around  us,  there  is  no  danger 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PEINCIPLE.  259 

that  any  will  dog  his  steps,  and  endeavor  to  supplant  him. 
He  may  claim  and  undermine  the  whole  valley  even, 
both  the  cultivated  and  the  uncultivated  portions,  his 
whole  life  long  in  peace,  for  no  one  will  ever  dispute  his 
claim.  They  will  not  mind  his  cradles  or  his  toms.  He 
is  not  confined  to  a  claim  twelve  feet  square,  as  at  Balla- 
rat,  but  may  mine  anywhere,  and  wash  the  whole  wide 
world  in  his  torn. 

Howitt  says  of  the  man  who  found  the  great  nugget 
which  weighed  twenty-eight  pounds,  at  the  Bendigo  dig 
gings  in  Australia :  "  He  soon  began  to  drink ;  got  a 
horse,  and  rode  all  about,  generally  at  full  gallop,  and, 
when  he  met  people,  called  out  to  inquire  if  they  knew 
who  he  was,  and  then  kindly  informed  them  that  he  was 
*  the  bloody  wretch  that  had  found  the  nugget.'  At  last 
he  rode  full  speed  against  a  tree,  and  nearly  knocked 
his  brains  out."  I  think,  however,  there  was  no  danger 
of  that,  for  he  had  already  knocked  his  brains  out  against 
the  nugget.  Howitt  adds,  "  He  is  a  hopelessly  ruined 
man."  But  he  is  a  type  of  the  class.  They  are  all 
fast  men.  Hear  some  of  the  names  of  the  places  where 
they  dig:  "Jackass  Flat,"  —  «  Sheep's-Head  Gully,"  — 
"Murderer's  Bar,"  etc.  Is  there  no  satire  in  these 
names  ?  Let  them  carry  their  ill-gotten  wealth  where 
they  will,  I  am  thinking  it  will  still  be  "  Jackass  Flat," 
if  not  "  Murderer's  Bar,"  where  they  live. 

The  last  resource  of  our  energy  has  been  the  robbing 
of  graveyards  on  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  an  enterprise 
which  appears  to  be  but  in  its  infancy  ;  for,  according  to 
late  accounts,  an  act  has  passed  its  second  reading  in  the 
legislature  of  New  Granada,  regulating  this  kind  of  min 
ing  ;  and  a  correspondent  of  the  "  Tribune "  writes : 
"  In  the  dry  season,  when  the  weather  will  permit  of  the 


260  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

country  being  properly  prospected,  no  doubt  other  rich 
guacas  [that  is,  graveyards]  will  be  found."  To  emi 
grants  he  says :  "  Do  not  come  before  December ;  take 
the  Isthmus  route  in  preference  to  the  Boca  del  Toro 
one  ;  bring  no  useless  baggage,  and  do  not  cumber  your 
self  with  a  tent ;  but  a  good  pair  of  blankets  will  be 
necessary  ;  a  pick,  shovel,  and  axe  of  good  material  will 
be  almost  all  that  is  required  " :  advice  which  might  have 
been  taken  from  the  "  Barker's  Guide."  And  he  con 
cludes  with  this  line  in  Italics  and  small  capitals  :  "  If 
you  are  doing  well  at  home,  STAY  THERE,"  which  may 
fairly  be  interpreted  to  mean,  "  If  you  are  getting  a  good 
living  by  robbing  graveyards  at  home,  stay  there." 

But  why  go  to  California  for  a  text  ?  She  is  the  child 
of  New  England,  bred  at  her  own  school  and  church. 

It  is  remarkable  that  among  all  the  preachers  there 
are  so  few  moral  teachers.  The  prophets  are  employed 
in  excusing  the  ways  of  men.  Most  reverend  seniors, 
the  illuminati  of  the  age,  tell  me,  with  a  gracious,  remi 
niscent  smile,  betwixt  an  aspiration  and  a  shudder,  not 
to  be  too  tender  about  these  things,  —  to  lump  all  that, 
that  is,  make  a  lump  of  gold  of  it.  The  highest  advice 
I  have  heard  on  these  subjects  was  grovelling.  The 
burden  of  it  was,  —  It  is  not  worth  your  while  to  under 
take  to  reform  the  world  in  this  particular.  Do  not  ask 
how  your  bread  is  buttered ;  it  will  make  you  sick,  if 
you  do,  —  and  the  like.  A  man  had  better  starve  at 
once  than  lose  his  innocence  in  the  process  of  getting  his 
bread.  If  within  the  sophisticated  man  there  is  not  an 
unsophisticated  one,  then  he  is  but  one  of  the  Devil's 
angels.  As  we  grow  old,  we  live  more  coarsely,  we  re 
lax  a  little  in  our  disciplines,  and,  to  some  extent,  cease 
to  obey  our  finest  instincts.  But  we  should  be  fastidious 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  261 

to  the  extreme  of  sanity,  disregarding  the  gibes  of  those 
who  are  more  unfortunate  than  ourselves. 

In  our  science  and  philosophy,  even,  there  is  commonly 
no  true  and  absolute  account  of  things.  The  spirit  of 
sect  and  bigotry  has  planted  its  hoof  amid  the  stars.  You 
have  only  to  discuss  the  problem,  whether  the  stars  are 
inhabited  or  not,  in  order  to  discover  it.  Why  must  we 
daub  the  heavens  as  well  as  the  earth  ?  It  was  an  un 
fortunate  discovery  that  Dr.  Kane  was  a  Mason,  and 
that  Sir  John  Franklin  was  another.  But  it  was  a  more 
cruel  suggestion  that  possibly  that  was  the  reason  why 
the  former  went  in  search  of  the  latter.  There  is  not  a 
popular  magazine  in  this  country  that  would  dare  to 
print  a  child's  thought  on  important  subjects  without 
comment.  It  must  be  submitted  to  the  D.  D.s.  I 
would  it  were  the  chickadee-dees. 

You  come  from  attending  the  funeral  of  mankind  to 
attend  to  a  natural  phenomenon.  A  little  thought  is 
sexton  to  all  the  world. 

I  hardly  know  an  intellectual  man,  even,  who  is  so 
broad  and  truly  liberal  that  you  can  think  aloud  in  his 
society.  Most  with  whom  you  endeavor  to  talk  soon 
come  to  a  stand  against  some  institution  in  which  they 
appear  to  hold  stock,  —  that  is,  some  particular,  not  uni 
versal,  way  of  viewing  things.  They  will  continually 
thrust  their  own  low  roof,  with  its  narrow  skylight,  be 
tween  you  and  the  sky,  when  it  is  the  unobstructed 
heavens  you  would  view.  Get  out  of  the  way  with  your 
cobwebs,  wash  your  windows,  I  say !  In  some  lyceums 
they  tell  me  that  they  have  voted  to  exclude  the  subject 
of  religion.  But  how  do  I  know  what  their  religion  is, 
and  when  I  am  near  to  or  far  from  it  ?  I  have  walked 
into  such  an  arena  and  done  my  best  to  make  a  clean 


262  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

breast  of  what  religion  I  have  experienced,  and  the  au 
dience  never  suspected  what  I  was  about.  The  lecture 
was  as  harmless  as  moonshine  to  them.  Whereas,  if  I 
had  read  to  them  the  biography  of  the  greatest  scamps  in 
history,  they  might  have  thought  that  I  had  written  the 
lives  of  the  deacons  of  their  church.  Ordinarily,  the 
inquiry  is,  Where  did  you  come  from  ?  or,  Where  are 
you  going  ?  That  was  a  more  pertinent  question  which 
I  overheard  one  of  my  auditors  put  to  another  once,  — 
"  What  does  he  lecture  for  ?  "  It  made  me  quake  in  my 
shoes. 

To  speak  impartially,  the  best  men  that  I  know  are 
not  serene,  a  world  in  themselves.  For  the  most  part, 
they  dwell  in  forms,  and  flatter  and  study  effect  only 
more  finely  than  the  rest.  We  select  granite  for  the 
underpinning  of  our  houses  and  barns  ;  we  build  fences 
of  stone  ;  but  we  do  not  ourselves  rest  on  an  underpinning 
of  granitic  truth,  the  lowest  primitive  rock.  Our  sills 
are  rotten.  What  stuff  is  the  man  made  of  who  is  not 
coexistent  in  our  thought  with  the  purest  and  subtilest 
truth  ?  I  often  accuse  my  finest  acquaintances  of  an  im 
mense  frivolity ;  for,  while  there  are  manners  and  com 
pliments  we  do  not  meet,  we  do  not  teach  one  another 
the  lessons  of  honesty  and  sincerity  that  the  brutes  do, 
or  of  steadiness  and  solidity  that  the  rocks  do.  The  fault 
is  commonly  mutual,  however  ;  for  we  do  not  habitually 
demand  any  more  of  each  other. 

That  excitement  about  Kossuth,  consider  how  character 
istic,  but  superficial,  it  was  !  —  only  another  kind  of  poli 
tics  or  dancing.  Men  were  making  speeches  to  him  all 
over  the  country,  but  each  expressed  only  the  thought, 
or  the  want  of  thought,  of  the  multitude.  No  man  stood 
on  truth.  They  were  merely  banded  together,  as  usual,  NV/ 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PEINCIPLE.  263 

one  leaning  on  another,  and  all  together  on  nothing ;  as 
the  Hindoos  made  the  world  rest  on  an  elephant,  the 
elephant  on  a  tortoise,  and  the  tortoise  on  a  serpent,  and 
had  nothing  to  put  under  the  serpent.  For  all  fruit  of 
that  stir  we  have  the  Kossuth  hat. 

Just  so  hollow  arid  ineffectual,  for  the  most  part,  is 
our  ordinary  conversation.  Surface  meets  surface.  When 
our  life  ceases  to  be  inward  and  private,  conversation  de 
generates  into  mere  gossip.  We  rarely  meet  a  man  who 
can  tell  us  any  news  which  he  has  not  read  in  a  news 
paper,  or  been  told  by  his  neighbor ;  and,  for  the  most 
part,  the  only  difference  between  us  and  our  fellow  is, 
that  he  has  seen  the  newspaper,  or  been  out  to  tea,  and  l- 
we  have  not.  In  proportion  as  our  inward  life  fails,  we 
go  more  constantly  and  desperately  to  the  post-office,  -u- 
You  may  depend  on  it,  that  the  poor  fellow  who  walks 
away  with  the  greatest  number  of  letters,  proud  of  his 
extensive  correspondence,  has  not  heard  from  himself 
this  long  while. 

I  do  not  know  but  it  is  too  much  to  read  one  news 
paper  a  week.  I  have  tried  it  recently,  and  for  so  long 
it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  not  dwelt  in  my  native 
region.  The  sun,  the  clouds,  the  snow,  the  trees  say 
not  so  much  to  me.  You  cannot  serve  two  masters. 
It  requires  more  than  a  day's  devotion  to  know  and  to 
possess  the  wealth  of  a  day. 

We  may  well  be  ashamed  to  tell  what  things  we 
have  read  or  heard  in  our  day.  I  do  not  know  why  my 
news  should  be  so  trivial,  —  considering  what  one's 
dreams  and  expectations  are,  why  the  developments 
should  be  so  paltry.  The  news  we  hear,  for  the  most 
part,  is  not  news  to  our  genius.  It  is  the  stalest  repeti 
tion.  You  are  often  tempted  to  ask,  why  such  stress  is 


264  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

laid  on  a  particular  experience  which  you  have  had,  — 
that,  after  twenty-five  years,  you  should  meet  Hobbins, 
Registrar  of  Deeds,  again  on  the  sidewalk.  Have  you 
not  budged  an  inch,  then  ?  Such  is  the  daily  news.  Its 
facts  appear  to  float  in  the  atmosphere,  insignificant  as 
the  sporules  of  fungi,  and  impinge  on  some  neglected 
thallus,  or  surface  of  our  rninds,  which  affords  a  basis 
for  them,  and  hence  a  parasitic  growth.  "We  should 
wash  ourselves  clean  of  such  news.  Of  what  conse 
quence,  though  our  planet  explode,  if  there  is  no 
character  involved  in  the  explosion?  In  health  we 
have  not  the  least  curiosity  about  such  events.  We  do 
not  live  for  idle  amusement.  I  would  not  run  round  a 
corner  to  see  the  world  blow  up. 

All  summer,  and  far  into  the  autumn,  perchance,  you 
unconsciously  went  by  the  newspapers  and  the  news, 
and  now  you  find  it  was  because  the  morning  and  the 
evening  were  full  of  news  to  you.  Your  walks  were 
full  of  incidents.  You  attended,  not  to  the  affairs  of 
Europe,  but  to  your  own  affairs  in  Massachusetts  fields. 
If  you  chance  to  live  and  move  and  have  your  being  in 
that  thin  stratum  in  which  the  events  that  make  the 
news  transpire,  —  thinner  than  the  paper  on  which  it  is 
printed,  —  then  these  things  will  fill  the  world  for  you  ; 
but  if  you  soar  above  or  dive  below  that  plane,  you  can 
not  remember  nor  be  reminded  of  them.  Really  to  see 
the  sun  rise  or  go  down  every  day,  so  to  relate  ourselves 
to  a  universal  fact,  would  preserve  us  sane  forever. 
Nations !  What  are  nations  ?  Tartars,  and  Huns, 
and  Chinamen !  Like  insects,  they  swarm.  The  histo 
rian  strives  in  vain  to  make  them  memorable.  It  is  for 
want  of  a  man  that  there  are  so  many  men.  It  is  indi 
viduals  that  populate  the  world.  Any  man  thinking 
may  say  with  the  Spirit  of  Lodin,  — 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  265 

"  I  look  down  from  my  height  on  nations, 
And  they  become  ashes  before  me;  — 
Calm  is  my  dwelling  in  the  clouds ; 
Pleasant  are  the  great  fields  of  my  rest." 

Pray,  let  us  live  without  being  drawn  by  dogs, 
Esquimaux-fashion,  tearing  over  hill  and  dale,  and  bit 
ing  each  other's  ears. 

Not  without  a  slight  shudder  at  the  danger,  I  often 
perceive  how  near  I  had  come  to  admitting  into  my 
mind  the  details  of  some  trivial  affair,  —  the  news  of 
the  street ;  and  I  am  astonished  to  observe  how  willing 
men  are  to  lumber  their  minds  with  such  rubbish,  —  to 
permit  idle  rumors  and  incidents  of  the  most  insig 
nificant  kind  to  intrude  on  ground  which  should  be 
sacred  to  thought.  Shall  the  mind  be  a  public  arena, 
where  the  affairs  of  the  street  and  the  gossip  of  the  tea- 
table  chiefly  are  discussed  ?  Or  shall  it  be  a  quarter  of 
heaven  itself,  —  an  hypsethral  temple,  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  the  gods  ?  I  find  it  so  difficult  to  dispose  of 
the  few  facts  which  to  me  are  significant  that  I  hesitate 
to  burden  my  attention  with  those  which  are  insignifi 
cant,  which  only  a  divine  mind  could  illustrate.  Such 
is,  for  the  most  part,  the  news  in  newspapers  and  con 
versation.  It  is  important  to  preserve  the  mind's 
chastity  in  this  respect.  Think  of  admitting  the  details 
of  a  single  case  of  the  criminal  court  into  our  thoughts, 
to  stalk  profanely  through  their  very  sanctum  sanctorum 
for  an  hour,  ay,  for  many  hours  !  to  make  a  very  bar 
room  of  the  mind's  inmost  apartment,  as  if  for  so  long 
the  dust  of  the  street  had  occupied  us,  —  the  very  street 
itself,  with  all  its  travel,  its  bustle,  and  filth,  had  passed 
through  our  thoughts'  shrine!  Would  it  not  be  an 
intellectual  and  moral  suicide  ?  When  I  have  been 

12 


266  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

compelled  to  sit  spectator  and  auditor  in  a  court-room  for 
some  hours,  and  have  seen  my  neighbors,  who  were  not 
compelled,  stealing  in  from  time  to  time,  and  tiptoeing 
about  with  washed  hands  and  faces,  it  has  appeared  to 
my  mind's  eye,  that,  when  they  took  off  their  hats,  their 
ears  suddenly  expanded  into  vast  hoppers  for  sound, 
between  which  even  their  narrow  heads  were  crowded. 
Like  the  vanes  of  windmills,  they  caught  the  broad,  but 
shallow  stream  of  sound,  which,  after  a  few  titillating 
gyrations  in  their  coggy  brains,  passed  out  the  other 
•  side.  I  wondered  if,  when  they  got  home,  they  were  as 
careful  to  wash  their  ears  as  before  their  hands  and 
faces.  It  has  seemed  to  me,  at  such  a  time,  that  the 
auditors  and  the  witnesses,  the  jury  and  the  counsel,  the 
judge  and  the  criminal  at  the  bar,  —  if  I  may  presume 
him  guilty  before  he  is  convicted, — were  all  equally 
criminal,  and  a  thunderbolt  might  be  expected  to  de 
scend  and  consume  them  all  together. 

By  all  kinds  of  traps  and  signboards,  threatening  the 
extreme  penalty  of  the  divine  law,  exclude  such  trespass 
ers  from  the  only  ground  which  can  be  sacred  to  you. 
It  is  so  hard  to  forget  what  it  is  worse  than  useless  to 
remember !  If  I  am  to  be  a  thoroughfare,  I  prefer  that 
it  be  of  the  mountain-brooks,  the  Parnassian  streams, 
and  not  the  town-sewers.  There  is  inspiration,  that 
gossip  which  comes  to  the  ear  of  the  attentive  mind 
from  the  courts  of  heaven.  There  is  the  profane  and 
stale  revelation  of  the  bar-room  and  the  police  court. 
The  same  ear  is  fitted  to  receive  both  communications. 
Only  the  character  of  the  hearer  determines  to  which  it 
shall  be  open,  and  to  which  closed.  I  believe  that  the 
mind  can  be  permanently  profaned  by  the  habit  of 
attending  to  trivial  things,  so  that  all  our  thoughts  shall 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 


2G7 


be  tinged  with  triviality.  Our  very  intellect  shall  be 
macadamized,  as  it  were,  —  its  foundation  broken  into 
fragments  for  the  wheels  of  travel  to  roll  over  ;  and  if 
you  would  know  what  will  make  the  most  durable 
pavement,  surpassing  rolled  stones,  spruce  blocks,  and 
asphaltum,  you  have  only  to  look  into  some  of  our 
minds  which  have  been  subjected  to  this  treatment  so 
long. 

If  we  have  thus  desecrated  ourselves,  —  as  who  has 
not  ?  —  the  remedy  will  be  by  wariness  and  devotion  to 
reconsecrate  ourselves,  and  make  once  more  a  fane 
of  the  mind.  We  should  treat  our  minds,  that  is, 
ourselves,  as  innocent  and  ingenuous  children,  whose 
guardians  we  are,  and  be  careful  what  objects  and  what 
subjects  we  thrust  on  their  attention.  Read  not  the 
Times.  Read  the  Eternities.  Conventionalities  are  at 
length  as  bad  as  impurities.  Even  the  facts  of  science 
may  dust  the  mind  by  their  dryness,  unless  they  are  in 
a  sense  effaced  each  morning,  or  rather  rendered  fertile 
by  the  dews  of  fresh  and  living  truth.  Knowledge  does 
not  come  to  us  by  details,  but  in  flashes  of  light  from 
heaven.  Yes,  every  thought  that  passes  through  the 
mind  helps  to  wear  and  tear  it,  and  to  deepen  the  ruts, 
which,  as  in  the  streets  of  Pompeii,  evince  how  much 
it  has  been  used.  How  many  things  there  are  concern 
ing  which  we  might  well  deliberate  whether  we  had 
better  know  them,  —  had  better  let  their  peddling-carts 
be  driven,  even  at  the  slowest  trot  or  walk,  over  that 
bridge  of  glorious  span  by  which  we  trust  to  pass  at  last 
from  the  farthest  brink  of  time  to  the  nearest  shore  of 
eternity  !  Have  we  no  culture,  no  refinement,  —  but 
skill  only  to  live  coarsely  and  serve  the  Devil  ?  —  to 
acquire  a  little  worldly  wealth,  or  fame,  or  liberty,  and 


+ 

y/e 


268  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

make  a  false  show  with  it,  as  if  we  were  all  husk  and 
shell,  with  no  tender  and  living  kernel  to  us  ?  Shall  our 
institutions  be  like  those  chestnut-burrs  which  contain 
abortive  nuts,  perfect  only  to  prick  the  fingers  ? 

America  is  said  to  be  the  arena  on  which  the  battle  of 
freedom  is  to  be  fought  ;  but  surely  it  cannot  be  freedom 
in  a  merely  political  sense  that  is  meant.  Even  if  we 
grant  that  the  American  has  freed  himself  from  a  politi- 
cal  tyrant,  he  is  still  the  slave  of  an  economical  and  moral 
tyrant.  Now  that  the  republic,  —  the  res-publica,  —  has 
been  settled,  it  is  time  to  look  after  the  res-privata,  -  — 
the  private  state,  —  to  see,  as  the  Roman  senate  charged 
its  consuls,  "ne  quid  res-PKivATA  detrimenti  caperet" 
that  the  private  state  receive  no  detriment. 

Do  we  call  this  the  land  of  the  free  ?  What  is  it  to 
be  free  from  King  George  and  continue  the  slaves  of 
Prejudice?  What  is  it  to  be  born  free  and  not  to 
live  free  ?  What  is  the  value  of  any  political  freedom, 
but  as  a  means  to  moral  freedom  ?  Is  it  a  freedom  to 
be  slaves,  or  a  freedom  to  be  free,  of  which  we  boast  ? 
We  are  a  nation  of  politicians,  concerned  about  the  out 
most  defences  only  of  freedom.  It  is  our  children's  chil 
dren  who  may  perchance  be  really  free.  We  tax  our 
selves  unjustly.  There  is  a  part  of  us  which  is  not 
represented.  It  is  taxation  without  representation.  We 
quarter  troops,  we  quarter  fools  and  cattle  of  all  sorts 
upon  ourselves.  We  quarter  our  gross  bodies  on  our 
poor  souls,  till  the  former  eat  up  all  the  latter's  sub 
stance. 

With  respect  to  a  true  culture  and  manhood,  we  are 
essentially  provincial  still,  not  metropolitan,  —  mere 
Jonathans.  We  are  provincial,  because  we  do  not  find 
at  home  our  standards,  —  because  we  do  not  worship 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  269 

truth,  but  the  reflection  of  truth,  —  because  we  are 
warped  and  narrowed  by  an  exclusive  devotion  to  trade 
and  commerce  and  manufactures  and  agriculture  and  the 
like,  which  are  but  means,  and  not  the  end. 

So  is  the  English  Parliament  provincial.  Mere  coun 
try-bumpkins,  they  betray  themselves,  when  any  more 
important  question  arises  for  them  to  settle,  the  Irish 
question,  for  instance,  —  the  English  question  why  did  I 
not  say  ?  Their  natures  are  subdued  to  what  they  work 
in.  Their  "  good  breeding  "  respects  only  secondary  ob-  - 
jects.  The  finest  manners  in  the  world  are  awkwardness 
and  fatuity,  when  contrasted  with  a  finer  intelligence. 
They  appear  but  as  the  fashions  of  past  days,  —  mere 
courtliness,  knee-buckles  and  small-clothes,  out  of  date. 
It  is  the  vice,  but  not  the  excellence  of  manners,  that 
they  are  continually  being  deserted  by  the  character ; 
they  are  -cast-off  clothes  or  shells,  claiming  the  respect 
which  belonged  to  the  living  creature.  You  are  present 
ed  with  the  shells  instead  of  the  meat,  and  it  is  no  ex 
cuse  generally,  that,  in  the  case  of  some  fishes,  the  shells 
are  of  more  worth  than  the  meat.  The  man  who  thrusts 
his  manners  upon  me  does  as  if  he  were  to  insist  on  in-  , 
troducing  me  to  his  cabinet  of  curiosities,  when  I  wished  r' 
to  see  himself.  It  was  not  in  this  sense  that  the  poet 
Decker  called  Christ  "  the  first  true  gentleman  that  ever 
breathed."  I  repeat,  that  in  this  sense  the  most  splendid 
court  in  Christendom  is  provincial,  having  authority  to 
consult  about  Transalpine  interests  only,  and  not  the 
affairs  of  Rome.  A  praetor  or  proconsul  would  suffice 
to  settle  the  questions  which  absorb  the  attention  of  the 
English  Parliament  and  the  American  Congress. 

Government  and  legislation !  these   I  thought  were 
respectable  professions.     We  have  heard  of  heaven-born 


270  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

Numas,  Lycurguses,  and  Solons,  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  whose  names  at  least  may  stand  for  ideal  legisla 
tors  ;  but  think  of  legislating  to  regulate  the  breeding  of 
slaves,  or  the  exportation  of  tobacco  !  What  have  divine 
legislators  to  do  with  the  exportation  or  the  importation  of 
tobacco  ?  what  humane  ones  with  the  breeding  of  slaves  ? 
Suppose  you  were  to  submit  the  question  to  any  son  of 
God,  —  and  has  He  no  children  in  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury  ?  is  it  a  family  which  is  extinct  ?  —  in  what  condi 
tion  would  you  get  it  again  ?  What  shall  a  State  like 
Virginia  say  for  itself  at  the  last  day,  in  which  these 
have  been  the  principal,  the  staple  productions  ?  What 
ground  is  there  for  patriotism  in  such  a  State  ?  I  derive 
my  facts  from  statistical  tables  which  the  States  them 
selves  have  published. 

CA  commerce  that  whitens  every  sea  in  quest  of  nuts 
and  raisins,  and  makes  slaves  of  its  sailors  for  this  pur 
pose  !  I  saw,  the  other  day,  a  vessel  which  had  been 
wrecked,  and  many  lives  lost,  and  her  cargo  of  rags,  ju 
niper-berries,  and  bitter  almonds  were  strewn  along  the 
shore.  It  seemed  hardly  worth  the  while  to  tempt  the 
dangers  of  the  sea  between  Leghorn  and  New  York  for 
the  sake  of  a  cargo  of  juniper-berries  and  bitter  almonds.  / 
America  sending  to  the  Old  World  for  her  bitters  !  Is 
not  the  sea-brine,  is  not  shipwreck,  bitter  enough  to  make 
the  cup  of  life  go  down  here  ?  Yet  such,  to  a  great  ex 
tent,  is  our  boasted  commerce ;  and  there  are  those  who 
style  themselves  statesmen  and  philosophers  who  are  so 
blind  as  to  think  that  progress  and  civilization  depend  on 
precisely  this  kind  of  interchange  and  activity,  —  the 
activity  of  flies  about  a  molasses-hogshead.  Very  well, 
observes  one,  if  men  were  oysters.  And  very  well,  an 
swer  I,  if  men  were  mosquitoes.  \ 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  271 

Lieutenant  Herndon,  whom  our  Government  sent  to 
explore  the  Amazon,  and,  it  is  said,  to  extend  the  area 
of  slavery,  observed  that  there  was  wanting  there  "  an 
industrious  and  active  population,  who  know  what  the 
comforts  of  life  are,  and  who  have  artificial  wants  to  draw 
out  the  great  resources  of  the  country."  But  what  are 
the  "  artificial  wants  "  to  be  encouraged  ?  Not  the  love 
of  luxuries,  like  the  tobacco  and  slaves  of,  I  believe,  his 
native  Virginia,  nor  the  ice  and  granite  and  other  mate 
rial  wealth  of  our  native  New  England ;  nor  are  "  the 
great  resources  of  a  country  "  that  fertility  or  barrenness 
of  soil  which  produces  these.  The  chief  want,  in  every 
State  that  I  have  been  into,  was  a  high  and  earnest  pur 
pose  in  its  inhabitants.  This  alone  draws  out  "the 
great  resources  "  of  Nature,  and  at  last  taxes  her  beyond 
her  resources ;  for  man  naturally  dies  out  of  her.  When 
we  want  culture  more  than  potatoes,  and  illumination 
more  than  sugar-plums,  then  the  great  resources  of  a 
world  are  taxed  and  drawn  out,  and  the  result,  or  staple 
production,  is,  not  slaves,  nor  operatives,  but  men,  — 
those  rare  fruits  called  heroes,  saints,  poets,  philosophers, 
and  redeemers. 

In  short,  as  a  snow-drift  is  formed  where  there  is  a 
lull  in  the  wind,  so,  one  would  say,  where  there  is  a  lull 
of  truth,  an  institution  springs  up.  But  the  truth  blows 
right  on  over  it,  nevertheless,  and  at  length  blows  it 
down. 

What  is  called  politics  is  comparatively  something  so 
superficial  and  inhuman,  that,  practically,  I  have  never 
fairly  recognized  that  it  concerns  me  at  all.  The  news 
papers,  I  perceive,  devote  some  of  their  columns  specially 
to  politics  or  government  without  charge  ;  and  this,  one 
would  say,  is  all  that  saves  it ;  but,  as  I  love  literature, 


272  LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE. 

and,  to  some  extent,  the  truth  also,  I  never  read  those 
columns  at  any  rate.  I  do  not  wish  to  blunt  my  sense 
of  right  so  much.  I  have  not  got  to  answer  for  having 
read  a  single  President's  Message.  A  strange  age  of 
the  world  this,  when  empires,  kingdoms,  and  republics 
come  a-begging  to  a  private  man's  door,  and  utter  their 
complaints  at  his  elbow !  I  cannot  take  up  a  newspaper 
but  I  find  that  some  wretched  government  or  other,  hard 
pushed,  and  on  its  last  legs,  is  interceding  with  me,  the 
reader,  to  vote  for  it,  —  more  importunate  than  an  Ital 
ian  beggar ;  and  if  I  have  a  mind  to  look  at  its  certificate, 
made,  perchance,  by  some  benevolent  merchant's  clerk, 
or  the  skipper  that  brought  it  over,  for  it  cannot  speak  a 
word  of  English  itself,  I  shall  probably  read  of  the  erup 
tion  of  some  Vesuvius,  or  the  overflowing  of  some  Po, 
true  or  forged,  which  brought  it  into  this  condition.  I 
do  not  hesitate,  in  such  a  case,  to  suggest  work,  or  the 
almshouse  ;  or  why  not  keep  its  castle  in  silence,  as  I  do 
commonly  ?  The  poor  President,  what  with  preserving 
his  popularity  and  doing  his  duty,  is  completely  bewil 
dered.  The  newspapers  are  the  ruling  power.  Any 
other  government  is  reduced  to  a  few  marines  at  Fort 
Independence.  If  a  man  neglects  to  read  the  Daily ; 
Times,  government  will  go  down  on  its  knees  to  him,  for! 
this  is  the  only  treason  in  these  days. 

Those  things  which  now  most  engage  the  attention  of 
men,  as  politics  and  the  daily  routine,  are,  it  is  true, 
vital  functions  of  human  society,  but  should  be  uncon 
sciously  performed,  like  the  corresponding  functions  of 
the  physical  body.  They  are  iVi/ra-hurnan,  a  kind  of 
vegetation.  I  sometimes  awake  to  a  half-consciousness 
of  them  going  on  about  me,  as  a  man  may  become  con 
scious  of  some  of  the  processes  of  digestion  in  a  mor- 


LIFE  WITHOUT  PRINCIPLE.  273 

bid  state,  and  so  have  the  dyspepsia,  as  it  is  called.  It 
is  as  if  a  thinker  submitted  himself  to  be  rasped  by  the 
great  gizzard  of  creation.  Politics  is,  as  it  were,  the  JL» 
gizzard  of  society,  full  of  grit  and  gravel,  and  the  two 
political  parties  are  its  two  opposite  halves,  —  some 
times  split  into  quarters,  it  may  be,  which  grind  on  each 
other.  Not  only  individuals,  but  states,  have  thus  a 
confirmed  dyspepsia,  which  expresses  itself,  you  can  im 
agine  by  what  sort  of  eloquence.  Thus  our  life  is  not 
altogether  a  forgetting,  but  also,  alas !  to  a  great  extent, 
a  remembering,  of  that  which  we  should  never  have  been 
conscious  of,  certainly  not  in  our  waking  hours.  Why 
should  we  not  meet,  not  always  as  dyspeptics,  to  tell  our 
bad  dreams,  but  sometimes  as  ewpeptics,  to  congratulate 
each  other  on  the  ever-glorious  morning?  I  do  not 
make  an  exorbitant  demand,  surely. 


10* 


WENDELL   PHILLIPS   BEFORE   THE 
CONCORD   LYCEUM.* 


CONCORD,  MASS.,  March  12,  1845. 
MR.  EDITOR  :  — 

We  have  now,  for  the  third  winter,  had  our  spirits  re 
freshed,  and  our  faith  in  the  destiny  of  the  Common 
wealth  strengthened,  by  the  presence  and  the  eloquence 
of  Wendell  Phillips ;  and  we  wish  to  tender  to  him  our 
thanks  and  our  sympathy.  The  admission  of  this  gentle 
man  into  the  Lyceum  has  been  strenuously  opposed  by  a 
respectable  portion  of  our  fellow-citizens,  who  themselves, 
we  trust,  —  whose  descendants,  at  least,  we  know,  —  will 
be  as  faithful  conservers  of  the  true  order,  whenever  that 
shall  be  the  order  of  the  day,  —  and  in  each  instance 
the  people  have  voted  that  they  would  hear  him,  by  com 
ing  themselves  and  bringing  their  friends  to  the  lecture- 
room,  and  being  very  silent  that  they  might  hear.  We 
saw  some  men  and  women,  who  had  long  ago  come  out, 
going  in  once  more  through  the  free  and  hospitable  por 
tals  of  the  Lyceum;  and  many  of  our  neighbors  con 
fessed,  that  they  had  had  a  "  sound  season  "  this  once. 

It  was  the  speaker's  aim  to  show  what  the  State,  and 
above  all  the  Church,  had  to  do,  and  now,  alas  !  have 
done,  with  Texas  and  slavery,  and  how  much,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  individual  should  have  to  do  with  Church 
and  State.  These  were  fair  themes,  and  not  mistimed; 

*  from  "  The  Liberator,"  March  28,  1845. 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS  BEFOKE  CONCOKD  LYCEUM.  275 

and  his  words  were  addressed  to  "  fit  audience,  and  not 
few." 

We  must  give  Mr.  Phillips  the  credit  of  being  a  clean, 
erect,  and  what  was  once  called  a  consistent  man.  He 
at  least  is  not  responsible  for  slavery,  nor  for  American 
Independence ;  for  the  hypocrisy  and  superstition  of  the 
Church,  nor  the  timidity  and  selfishness  of  the  State ; 
nor  for  the  indifference  and  willing  ignorance  of  any. 
He  stands  so  distinctly,  so  firmly,  and  so  effectively  alone, 
and  one  honest  man  is  so  much  more  than  a  host,  that 
we  cannot  but  feel  that  he  does  himself  injustice  when 
he  reminds  us  of  "  the  American  Society,  which  he  rep 
resents."  It  is  rare  that  we  have  the  pleasure  of  listen 
ing  to  so  clear  and  orthodox  a  speaker,  who  obviously 
has  so  few  cracks  or  flaws  in  his  moral  nature,  —  who, 
having  words  at  his  command  in  a  remarkable  degree, 
has  much  more  than  words,  if  these  should  fail,  in  his 
unquestionable  earnestness  and  integrity,  —  and,  aside 
from  their  admiration  at  his  rhetoric,  secures  the  genuine 
respect  of  his  audience.  He  unconsciously  tells  his  biog 
raphy  as  he  proceeds,  and  we  see  him  early  and  earnest 
ly  deliberating  on  these  subjects,  and  wisely  and  bravely, 
without  counsel  or  consent  of  any,  occupying  a  ground 
at  first  from  which  the  varying  tides  of  public  opinion 
cannot  drive  him. 

No  one  could  mistake  the  genuine  modesty  and  truth 
with  which  he  affirmed,  when  speaking  of  the  framers 
of  the  Constitution,  "  I  am  wiser  than  they,"  who  with 
him  has  improved  these  sixty  years'  experience  of  its 
working ;  or  the  uncompromising  consistency  and  frank 
ness  of  the  prayer  which  concluded,  not  like  the  Thanks 
giving  proclamations,  with  —  "  God  save  the  Common 
wealth  of  Massachusetts,"  but  —  God  dash  it  into  a  thou- 


276  WENDELL  PHILLIPS  BEFORE 

sand  pieces,  till  there  shall  not  remain  a  fragment  on 
which  a  man  can  stand,  and  dare  not  tell  his  name, — 
referring  to  the  case  of  Frederick  ;  to  our  dis 
grace  we  know  not  what  to  call  him,  unless  Scotland 
will  lend  us  the  spoils  of  one  of  her  Douglasses,  out  of 
history  or  fiction,  for  a  season,  till  we  be  hospitable  and 
brave  enough  to  hear  his  proper  name,  —  a  fugitive  slave 
in  one  more  sense  than  we ;  who  lias  proved  himself  the 
possessor  of  a,  fair  intellect,  and  has  won  a  colorless  rep 
utation  in  these  parts  ;  and  who,  we  trust,  will  be  as 
superior  to  degradation  from  the  sympathies  of  Freedom, 
as  from  the  antipathies  of  Slavery.  When,  said  Mr. 
Phillips,  he  communicated  to  a  New  Bedford  audience, 
the  other  day,  his  purpose  of  writing  his  life,  and  telling 
his  name,  and  the  name  of  his  master,  and  the  place  he 
ran  from,  the  murmur  ran  round  the  room,  and  was  anx 
iously  whispered  by  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims, "  He  had 
better  not !  "  and  it  was  echoed  under  the  shadow  of  Con 
cord  monument,  "  He  had  better  not !  " 

We  would  fain  express  our  appreciation  of  the  free 
dom  and  steady  wisdom,  so  rare  in  the  reformer,  with 
which  he  declared  that  he  was  not  born  to  abolish  slav 
ery,  but  to  do  right.  We  have  heard  a  few,  a  very  few, 
good  political  speakers,  who  afforded  us  the  pleasure  of 
great  intellectual  power  and  acuteness,  of  soldier-like 
steadiness,  and  of  a  graceful  and  natural  oratory ;  but  in 
this  man  the  audience  might  detect  a  sort  of  moral  prin 
ciple  and  integrity,  which  was  more  stable  than  their 
firmness,  more  discriminating  than  his  own  intellect,  and 
more  graceful  than  his  rhetoric,  which  was  not  working 
for  temporary  or  trivial  ends.  It  is  so  rare  and  encour 
aging  to  listen  to  an  orator  who  is  content  with  another 
alliance  than  with  the  popular  party,  or  even  with  the 


THE  CONCORD  LYCEUM.          277 

sympathizing  school  of  the  martyrs,  who  can  afford  some 
times  to  be  his  own  auditor  if  the  mob  stay  away,  and 
hears  himself  without  reproof,  that  we  feel  ourselves  in 
danger  of  slandering  all  mankind  by  affirming,  that  here 
is  one,  who  is  at  the  same  time  an  eloquent  speaker  and 
a  righteous  man. 

Perhaps,  on  the  whole,  the  most  interesting  fact  elicit 
ed  by  these  addresses,  is  the  readiness  of  the  people  at 
large,  of  whatever  sect  or  party,  to  entertain,  with  good 
will  and  hospitality,  the  most  revolutionary  and  heretical 
opinions,  when  frankly  and  adequately,  and  in  some  sort 
cheerfully,  expressed.  Such  clear  and  candid  declara 
tion  of  opinion  served  like  an  electuary  to  whet  and  clar 
ify  the  intellect  of  all  parties,  and  furnished  each  one 
with  an  additional  argument  for  that  right  he  asserted. 

We  consider  Mr.  Phillips  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
and  efficient  champions  of  a  true  Church  and  State  now 
in  the  field,  and  would  say  to  him,  and  such  as  are  like 
him,  "  God  speed  you."  If  you  know  of  any  champion 
in  the  ranks  of  his  opponents,  who  has  the  valor  and 
courtesy  even  of  Paynim  chivalry,  if  not  the  Christian 
graces  and  refinement  of  this  knight,  you  will  do  us  a 
service  by  directing  him  to  these  fields  forthwith,  where 
the  lists  are  now  open,  and  he  shall  be  hospitably  enter 
tained.  For  as  yet  the  Red-cross  knight  has  shown  us 
only  the  gallant  device  upon  his  shield,  and  his  admira 
ble  command  of  his  steed,  prancing  and  curvetting  in  the 
empty  lists  ;  but  we  wait  to  see  who,  in  the  actual  break 
ing  of  lances,  will  come  tumbling  upon  the  plain. 


THE  LAST  DAYS   OF  JOHN  BROWN.* 


JOHN  BROWN'S  career  for  the  last  six  weeks  of  his  life 
was  meteor-like,  flashing  through  the  darkness  in  which 
we  live.  I  know  of  nothing  so  miraculous  in  our  his 
tory. 

If  any  person,  in  a  lecture  or  conversation  at  that 
time,  cited  any  ancient  example  of  heroism,  such  as  Cato 
or  Tdl  or  Winkelried,  passing  over  the  recent  deeds 
and  words  of  Brown,  it  was  felt  by  any  intelligent  au 
dience  of  Northern  men  to  be  tame  and  inexcusably  far 
fetched. 

For  my  own  part,  I  commonly  attend  more  to  nature 
than  to  man,  but  any  affecting  human  event  may  blind 
our  eyes  to  natural  objects.  I  was  so  absorbed  in  him 
as  to  be  surprised  whenever  I  detected  the  routine  of  the 
natural  world  surviving  still,  or  met  persons  going  about 
their  affairs  indifferent.  It  appeared  strange  to  me  that 
the  "  little  dipper  "  should  be  still  diving  quietly  in  the 
river,  as  of  yore  ;  and  it  suggested  that  this  bird  might 
continue  to  dive  here  when  Concord  should- be  no  more. 

I  felt  that  he,  a  prisoner  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies, 
and  under  sentence  of  death,  if  consulted  as  to  his  next 
step  or  resource,  could  answer  more  wisely  than  all  his 
countrymen  beside.  He  best  understood  his  position  ;  he 
contemplated  it  most  calmly.  Comparatively,  all  other 

*  Read  at  North  Elba,  July  4,  1860. 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN.  279 

men,  North  and  South,  were  beside  themselves.  Our 
thoughts  could  not  revert  to  any  greater  or  wiser  or  bet 
ter  man  with  whom  to  contrast  him,  for  he,  then  and 
there,  was  above  them  all.  The  man  this  country  was 
about  to  hang  appeared  the  greatest  and  best  in  it. 

Years  were  not  required  for  a  revolution  of  public 
opinion;  days,  nay  hours,  produced  marked  changes  in 
this  case.  Fifty  who  were  ready  to  say  on  going  into  our 
meeting  in  honor  of  him  in  Concord,  that  he  ought  to  be 
hung,  would  not  say  it  when  they  came  out.  They  heard 
his  words  read ;  they  saw  the  earnest  faces  of  the  con 
gregation  ;  and  perhaps  they  joined  at  last  in  singing  the 
hymn  in  his  praise. 

The  order  of  instructors  was  reversed.  I  heard  that 
one  preacher,  who  at  first  was  shocked  and  stood  aloof, 
felt  obliged  at  last,  after  he  was  hung,  to  make  him  the 
subject  of  a  sermon,  in  which,  to  some  extent,  he  eulo 
gized  the  man,  but  said  that  his  act  was  a  failure.  An 
influential  class-teacher  thought  it  necessary,  after  the 
services,  to  tell  his  grown-up  pupils,  that  at  first  he 
thought  as  the  preacher  did  then,  but  now  he  thought 
that  John  Brown  was  right.  But  it  was  understood  that 
his  pupils  were  as  much  ahead  of  the  teacher  as  he  was 
ahead  of  the  priest ;  and  I  know  for  a  certainty,  that 
very  little  boys  at  home  had  already  asked  their  parents, 
in  a  tone  of  surprise,  why  God  did  not  interfere  to  save 
him.  In  each  case,  the  constituted  teachers  were  only 
half  conscious  that  they  were  not  leading,  but  being 
dragged,  with  some  loss  of  time  and  power. 

The  more  conscientious  preachers,  the  Bible  men,  they 
who  talk  about  principle,  and  doing  to  others  as  you 
would  that  they  should  do  unto  you,  —  how  could  they 
fail  to  recognize  him,  by  far  the  greatest  preacher  of 


280  THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN. 

them  all,  with  the  Bible  in  his  life  and  in  his  acts,  the 
embodiment  of  principle,  who  actually  carried  out  the 
golden  rule  ?  All  whose  moral  sense  had  been  aroused, 
who  had  a  calling  from  on  high  to  preach,  sided  with  him. 
What  confessions  he  extracted  from  the  cold  and  con 
servative  !  It  is  remarkable,  but  on  the  whole  it  is  well, 
that  it  did  not  prove  the  occasion  for  a  new  sect  of 
Brownites  being  formed  in  our  midst. 

They,  whether  within  the  Church  or  out  of  it,  who 
adhere  to  the  spirit  and  let  go  the  letter,  and  are  accord 
ingly  called  infidel,  were  as  usual  foremost  to  recognize 
him.  Men  have  been  hung  in  the  South  before  for 
attempting  to  rescue  slaves,  and  the  North  was  not 
much  stirred  by  it.  Whence,  then,  this  wonderful  dif 
ference?  We  were  not  so  sure  of  their  devotion  to 
principle.  We  made  a  subtle  distinction,  forgot  human 
laws,  and  did  homage  to  an  idea.  The  North,  I  mean 
the  living  North,  was  suddenly  all  transcendental.  It 
went  behind  the  human  law,  it  went  behind  the  apparent 
failure,  and  recognized  eternal  justice  and  glory.  Com 
monly,  men  live  according  to  a  formula,  and  are  satisfied 
if  the  order  of  law  is  observed,  but  in  this  instance  they, 
to  some  extent,  returned  to  original  perceptions,  and 
there  was  a  slight  revival  of  old  religion.  They  saw  that 
what  was  called  order  was  confusion,  what  was  called 
justice,  injustice,  and  that  the  best  was  deemed  the 
worst.  This  attitude  suggested  a  more  intelligent  and 
generous  spirit  than  that  which  actuated  our  forefathers, 
and  the  possibility,  in  the  course  of  ages,  of  a  revolution 
in  behalf  of  another  and  an  oppressed  people. 

Most  Northern  men,  and  a  few  Southern  ones,  were 
wonderfully  stirred  by  Brown's  behavior  and  words. 
They  saw  and  felt  that  they  were  heroic  and  noble,  and 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN.  281 

that  there  had  been  nothing  quite  equal  to  them  in  their 
kind  in  this  country,  or  in  the  recent  history  of  the 
world.  But  the  minority  were  unmoved  by  them. 
They  were  only  surprised  and  provoked  by  the  attitude 
of  their  neighbors.  They  saw  that  Brown  was  brave, 
and  that  he  believed  that  he  had  done  right,  but  they 
did  not  detect  any  further  peculiarity  in  him.  Not 
being  accustomed  to  make  fine  distinctions,  or  to  appre 
ciate  magnanimity,  they  read  his  letters  and  speeches  as 
if  they  read  them  not.  They  were  not  aware  when 
they  approached  a  heroic  statement,  —  they  did  not 
know  when  they  burned.  They  did  not  feel  that  he 
spoke  with  authority,  and  hence  they  only  remembered 
that  the  law  must  be  executed.  They  remembered  the 
old  formula,  but  did  not  hear  the  new  revelation.  The 
man  who  does  not  recognize  in  Brown's  words  a  wisdom 
and  nobleness,  and  therefore  an  authority,  superior  to  our 
laws,  is  a  modern  Democrat.  This  is  the  test  by  which 
to  discover  him.  He  is  not  wilfully  but  constitutionally 
blind  on  this  side,  and  he  is  consistent  with  himself. 
Such  has  been  his  past  life ;  no  doubt  of  it.  In  like 
manner  he  has  read  history  and  his  Bible,  and  he  ac 
cepts,  or  seems  to  accept,  the  last  only  as  an  established 
formula,  and  not  because  he  has  been  convicted  by  it. 
You  will  not  find  kindred  sentiments  in  his  common 
place  book,  if  he  has  one. 

When  a  noble  deed  is  done,  who  is  likely  to  appre 
ciate  it  ?  They  who  are  noble  themselves.  I  was  not 
surprised  that  certain  of  my  neighbors  spoke  of  John 
Brown  as  an  ordinary  felon,  for  who  are  they  ?  They 
have  either  much  flesh,  or  much  office,  or  much  coarse 
ness  of  some  kind.  They  are  not  ethereal  natures  in 
any  sense.  The  dark  qualities  predominate  in  them. 


282  THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN. 

Several  of  them  are  decidedly  pachydermatous.  I  say 
it  in  sorrow,  not  in  anger.  How  can  a  man  behold  the 
light,  who  has  no  answering  inward  light  ?  They  are 
true  to  their  right,  but  when  they  look  this  way  they  see 
nothing,  they  are  blind.  For  the  children  of  the  light 
to  contend  with  them  is  as  if  there  should  be  a  contest 
between  eagles  and  owls.  Show  me  a  man  who  feels 
bitterly  toward  John  Brown,  and  let  me  hear  what  noble 
verse  he  can  repeat.  He  '11  be  as  dumb  as  if  his  lips 
were  stone. 

It  is  not  every  man  who  can  be  a  Christian,  even  in 
a  very  moderate  sense,  whatever  education  you  give 
him.  It  is  a  matter  of  constitution  and  temperament, 
after  all.  He  may  have  to  be  born  again  many  times. 
I  have  known  many  a  man  who  pretended  to  be  a 
Christian,  in  whom  it  was  ridiculous,  for  he  had  no 
genius  for  it.  It  is  not  every  man  who  can  be  a  free 
man,  even. 

Editors  persevered  for  a'  good  while  in  saying  that 
Brown  was  crazy ;  but  at  last  they  said  only  that  it  was 
"  a  crazy  scheme,"  and  the  only  evidence  brought  to  prove 
it  was  that  it  cost  him  his  life.  I  have  no  doubt  that  if 
he  had  gone  with  five  thousand  men,  liberated  a  thou 
sand  slaves,  killed  a  hundred  or  two  slaveholders,  and 
had  as  many  more  killed  on  his  own  side,  but  not  lost 
his  own  life,  these  same  editors  would  have  called  it  by 
a  more  respectable  name.  Yet  he  has  been  far  more 
successful  than  that.  He  has  liberated  many  thousands 
of  slaves,  both  North  and  South.  They  seem  to  have 
known  nothing  about  living  or  dying  for  a  principle. 
They  all  called  him  crazy  then ;  who  calls  him  crazy 
now? 

All  through  the  excitement  occasioned  by  his  remark- 


THE  LAST  DAYS   OF  JOHN  BROWN.  283 

able  attempt  and  subsequent  behavior,  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature,  not  taking  any  steps  for  the  defence  of  her 
citizens  who  were  likely  to  be  carried  to  Virginia  as  wit 
nesses  and  exposed  to  the  violence  of  a  slaveholding  mob, 
was  wholly  absorbed  in  a  liquor-agency  question,  and  in 
dulging  in  poor  jokes  on  the  word  "  extension."  Bad 
spirits  occupied  their  thoughts.  I  am  sure  that  no  states 
man  up  to  the  occasion  could  have  attended  to  that  ques 
tion  at  all  at  that  time,  —  a  very  vulgar  question  to  at 
tend  to  at  any  time  ! 

When  I  looked  into  a  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  printed  near  the  end  of  the  last  century,  in  order 
to  find  a  service  applicable  to  the  case  of  Brown,  I  found 
that  the  only  martyr  recognized  and  provided  for  by  it 
was  King  Charles  the  First,  an  eminent  scamp.  Of  all 
the  inhabitants  of  England  and  of  the  world,  he  was  the 
only  one,  according  to  this  authority,  whom  that  church 
had  made  a  martyr  and  saint  of;  and  for  more  than  a 
century  it  had  celebrated  his  martyrdom,  so  called,  by 
an  annual  service.  What  a  satire  on  the  Church  is 
that ! 

Look  not  to  legislatures  and  churches  for  your  guid 
ance,  nor  to  any  soulless  incorporated  bodies,  but  to  in 
spirited  or  inspired  ones. 

What  avail  all  your  scholarly  accomplishments  and 
learning,  compared  with  wisdom  and  manhood  ?  To 
omit  his  other  behavior,  see  what  a  work  this  comparative 
ly  unread  and  unlettered  man  wrote  within  six  weeks. 
Where  is  our  professor  of  belles-lettres  or  of  logic  and 
rhetoric,  who  can  write  so  well  ?  He  wrote  in  prison, 
not  a  History  of  the  World,  like  Raleigh,  but  an  Ameri 
can  book  which  I  think  will  live  longer  than  that.  I  do 
not  know  of  such  words,  uttered  under  such  circum-? 


284  THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN. 

stances,  and  so  copiously  withal,  in  Roman  or  English  or 
any  history.  What  a  variety  of  themes  he  touched  on 
in  that  short  space!  There  are  words  in  that  letter  to 
his  wife,  respecting  the  education  of  his  daughters,  which 
deserve  to  be  framed  and  hung  over  every  mantel-piece 
in  the  land.  Compare  this  earnest  wisdom  with  that  of 
Poor  Richard. 

The  death  of  Irving,  which  at  any  other  time  would 
have  attracted  universal  attention,  having  occurred  while 
these  things  were  transpiring,  went  almost  unobserved. 
I  shall  have  to  read  of  it  in  the  biography  of  authors. 

Literary  gentlemen,  editors,  and  critics,  think  that  they 
know  how  to  write,  because  they  have  studied  grammar 
and  rhetoric  ;  but  they  are  egregiously  mistaken.  The 
art  of  composition  is  as  simple  as  the  discharge  of  a  bul 
let  from  a  rifle,  and  its  masterpieces  imply  an  infinitely 
greater  force  behind  them.  This  unlettered  man's  speak 
ing  and  writing  are  standard  English.  Some  words  and 
phrases  deemed  vulgarisms  and  Americanisms  before,  he 
has  made  standard  American  ;  such  as  "  It  will  pay  "  It 
suggests  that  the  one  great  rule  of  composition,  —  and  if 
I  were  a  professor  of  rhetoric  I  should  insist  on  this,  — 
is,  to  speak  the  truth.  This  first,  this  second,  this  third ; 
pebbles  in  your  mouth  or  not.  This  demands  earnest 
ness  and  manhood  chiefly. 

We  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  the  expression,  a  lib 
eral  education,  originally  meant  among  the  Romans  one 
worthy  of  free  men  ;  while  the  learning  of  trades  and 
professions  by  which  to  get  your  livelihood  merely  was 
considered  worthy  of  slaves  only.  But  taking  a  hint 
from  the  word,  I  would  go  a  step  further,  and  say,  that 
it  is  not  the  man  of  wealth  and  leisure  simply,  though 
devoted  to  art,  or  science,  or  literature,  who,  in  a  true 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN.  285 

sense,  is  liberally  educated,  but  only  the  earnest  and  free 
man.  In  a  slaveholding  country  like  this,  there  can  be 
no  such  thing  as  a  liberal  education  tolerated  by  the 
State ;  and  those  scholars  of  Austria  and  France  who, 
however  learned  they  may  be,  are  contented  under  their 
tyrannies,  have  received  only  a  servile  education. 

Nothing  could  his  enemies  do,  but  it  redounded  to  his 
infinite  advantage,  —  that  is,  to  the  advantage  of  his 
cause.  They  did  not  hang  him  at  once,  but  reserved 
him  to  preach  to  them.  And  then  there  was  another 
great  blunder.  They  did  not  hang  his  four  followers 
with  him  ;  that  scene  was  still  postponed  ;  and  so  his 
victory  was  prolonged  and  completed.  No  theatrical 
manager  could  have  arranged  things  so  wisely  to  give 
effect  to  his  behavior  and  words.  And  who,  think  you, 
was  the  manager  ?  Who  placed  the  slave-woman  and 
her  child,  whom  he  stooped  to  kiss  for  a  symbol,  between 
his  prison  and  the  gallows  ? 

We  soon  saw,  as  he  saw,  that  he  was  not  to  be  par 
doned  or  rescued  by  men.  That  would  have  been  to  dis 
arm  him,  to  restore  to  him  a  material  weapon,  a  Sharpe's 
rifle,  when  he  had  taken  up  the  sword  of  the  spirit,  —  the 
sword  with  which  he  has  really  won  his  greatest  and 
most  memorable  victories.  Now  he  has  not  laid  aside 
the  sword  of  the  spirit,  for  he  is  pure  spirit  himself,  and 
his  sword  is  pure  spirit  also. 

"  He  nothing  common  did  or  mean 
Upon  that  memorable  scene, 
Nor  called  the  gods  with  vulgar  spite, 
To  vindicate  his  helpless  right ; 
But  bowed  his  comely  head 
Down  as  upon  a  bed." 

What  a  transit  was  that  of  his  horizontal  body  alone, 
but  just  cut  down  from  the  gallows-tree  !  We  read,  that 


286  THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  JOHN  BROWN. 

at  such  a  time  it  passed  through  Philadelphia,  and  by 
Saturday  night  had  reached  New  York.  Thus,  like  a 
meteor  it  shot  through  the  Union  from  the  Southern  re 
gions  toward  the  North  !  No  such  freight  had  the  cars 
borne  since  they  carried  him  Southward  alive. 

On  the  day  of  his  translation,  I  heard,  to  be  sure,  that 
he  was  hung,  but  I  did  not  know  what  that  meant ;  I 
felt  no  sorrow  on  that  account ;  but  not  for  a  day  or  two 
did  I  even  hear  that  he  was  dead,  and  not  after  any  num 
ber  of  days  shall  I  believe  it.  Of  all  the  men  who  were 
said  to  be  my  contemporaries,  it  seemed  to  me  that  John 
Brown  was  the  only  one  who  had  not  died.  I  never 
hear  of  a  man  named  Brown  now,  —  and  I  hear  of  them 
pretty  often,  —  I  never  hear  of  any  particularly  brave 
and  earnest  man,  but  my  first  thought  is  of  John  Brown, 
and  what  relation  he  may  be  to  him.  I  meet  him  at 
every  turn.  He  is  more  alive  than  ever  he  was.  He 
has  earned  immortality.  He  is  not  confined  to  North 
Elba  nor  to  Kansas.  He  is  no  longer  working  in  secret. 
He  works  in  public,  and  in  the  clearest  light  that 
shines  on  this  land. 


THE  END 


• 


Cambridge  :  Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  •which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


.flEC-PLD   NOVZV72  -3 


MAR  24  1980 


2  B  -80 


K!iU.CIlt. 


MAR  1  G  i9£ 


DEC  X 1 1994 


REC.CIRC.    DEC  11 1994 


JUL  OE1998 


LD2lA-40m-3,'72 
(Qll73BlO)476-A-32 

General  Library 
University  of  California 
Berkeley 

U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CASE 
B 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


